The most important thing to being Christian -- which also makes it the strangest to most folks -- is living the gospel as if it were true. I try to live my life in such a way that the story of Jesus becomes my own story. If you want to talk about my life's successes, you should -- in the end -- be unable to tell it without telling the good news of God's reconciliation of the world in Jesus Christ.
Thing is, that story isn't a success story. It's a story of failures. In the end, Jesus' story -- and therefore my story -- is about one who loses in a way that is eloquent and beautiful because it has a consistent integrity with the sublime vision of scripture. It is called grace.
Living this story is about becoming a beautiful failure.