The important thing is the willingness to give back the gift that is you, not the perfection of the gift itself. Can you feel the difference?

As to his gospel, Jesus Christ came into the world as the image of the invisible God to communicate to us that not only did we not need to be afraid of God, but that God is more for us than we are ourselves or one another. God's love is infinite, and unstoppable, and will win!

I believe in mystery and multiplicity. To religious believers this may sound almost pagan. But I don't think so.

Religious belief has made me comfortable with ambiguity.

Nature is the one song of praise that never stops singing.

There is Someone dancing with you, and you are not afraid of making mistakes.

You do need some successes as a young person. They don't inflate the ego necessarily, they just give you identity and ego structure. But, don't construct your life around creating those. Or you will become narcissistic and ego-centric. That won't get you anywhere.