...And the Pursuit of Happiness

I'm discovering more and more about what Jesus meant when He said not to worry about tomorrow because today has enough cares of it's own. Just like everything else Jesus did and said, this is totally counter-cultural. In today's culture people are always telling you that you need to be preparing for the future. Poor high schoolers are always being hounded by the dreaded question, "what are you going to do when you graduate?". Like most adults even know what they want to do! We've become a culture that expects you to have your future together before you even have your present life together. I think that's what Jesus meant when He said to focus on today. How can you very well take care of the things that are going on around you right now when you are so worried about what you will be doing 10 years from now!?!?! People waste away their lives trying to strive for something. I believe that having goals is a good thing, but God didn't call us to strive for greatness. He told us to seek first the Kingdom of God and then everything else would just fall into place. If we focus on living every single day waking up and saying "How can I further the Kingdom of God today?" we will begin to really see our destiny unfold. When we focus too much on where we want to be, we will never be happy with where we are at.
This is something I have struggled with so much in my life. I've always had a hard time living in the moment and enjoying my life because I always felt pressure to know my next step. To make sure that everything was lined up for the next thing that I was going to do. Preparation and obsession of the future are two very different things. We need to begin to know the difference.
I honestly believe that we complicate our lives way too much. It really isn't that hard. We think that there is only one way that we can live life and be completely happy and so we strive to achieve happiness instead of achieve what our destiny is supposed to be - furthering the Kingdom of God. You can never follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and NOT be happy so why do we focus so much on our happiness instead of the leading of the Holy Spirit? It's time we stop living the way the world tells us to live and start living the way we are supposed to. My life is not about me. If I'm all there is to my life, then I'll be quite disappointed.