The Pursuit of Happyness

I saw the new movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” (purposely spelled wrong), on Friday w/ my friend Cheryl. The previews do not do the movie justice. It is such a moving and inspirational story. I saw both Will Smith & his son Jaden on Oprah a couple of weeks ago, so I already knew what was going to happen, but I still got choked up twice and actually had tears at the end. The title has to do with the Declaration of Independence phrase, and the main character, Christopher Gardner, takes it a step farther by saying that we must literally pursue happiness in order to achieve our dreams. We must not give up no matter what anyone else says or believes.
I have felt this way for a long time as well. Although God is very great and good, He does not hand us our dreams on a silver platter (at least not in my case, for some this is the case). We have to be proactive and work for what we want For me the hardest part is that I have worked so hard for many of my dreams only to fall short and to not have achieved a single one. Yet, after seeing this movie, I feel much more inspired. If a man as down and out as Christopher could obtain his goal with so little, then what is my malfunction? I need to reevaluate my life as well as my strategies. Of course, no matter how hard we try, we may continue to fail if what we want is not in God’s will. So hopefully my goals line up with His!
P.S. I also saw the movie “The Nativity Story” this weekend. It was very beautifully made. I thought the actress who portrayed Mary lacked personality (not that she was a bad actress, I just would have liked to have seen more emotion, especially when she was visited by Gabriel), but Joseph came across as a man you would expect to be the human father to Christ. He was generous, gracious, humble, and tender-hearted.