John Ortberg Jr. > Quotes

“Never worry alone. When anxiety grabs my mind, it is self-perpetuating. Worrisome thoughts reproduce faster than rabbits, so one of the most powerful ways to stop the spiral of worry is simply to disclose my worry to a friend... The simple act of reassurance from another human being [becomes] a tool of the Spirit to cast out fear -- because peace and fear are both contagious.”
― John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God's Best Version of You

“Low self-esteem causes me to believe that I have so little worth that my response does not matter. With repentance, however, I understand that being worth so much to God is why my response is so important. Repentance is remedial work to mend our minds and hearts, which get bent by sin.”
― John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God's Best Version of You

“We tend to be preoccupied by our problems when we have a heightened sense of vulnerability and a diminished sense of power. Today, see each problem as an invitation to prayer.”
― John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God's Best Version of You

“Bitterness is like drinking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die.”
― John Ortberg Jr., Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them

“The goal of prayer is to live all of my life and speak all of my words in the joyful awareness of the presence of God.
Prayer becomes real when we grasp the reality and goodness of God's constant presence with 'the real me.' Jesus lived his everyday life in conscious awareness of his Father.”
― John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God's Best Version of You

“To love someone is to desire and work toward their becoming the best version of themselves. The one person in all the universe who can do this perfectly for you is God.”
― John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God's Best Version of You

“God is so immense that if he were 'too visible,' people would give forced compliance without expressing their heart. So God made it possible, in enormous love, for us to live as if he were not there.”
― John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God's Best Version of You

“I am disappointed with myself. I am disappointed not so much with the particular things I have done as with the aspects of who I have become. I have a nagging sense that all is not as it should be.”
― John Ortberg, La vida que siempre has querido: Disciplinas espirituales para personas comunes

“What makes a man's 80 year-old Irish uncle skip like a little boy? "Me Father is very fond of me!”
― John Ortberg Jr., Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them

“Failure does not shape you; the way you respond to failure shapes you.”
― John Ortberg Jr., If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat

“A pastor struggled for years with sexual addiction, eventually becoming so despondent that hospitalized himself. He joined an inpatient group and was mostly silent as others shared.

When he decided not to come one day, the leader found he had fallen back into his addiction the previous night. Against every fiber of his instinct, he came back to the group. He shared how much he despised himself and his hypocritical behavior.

When he saw that others wept for him, the weight of the secret that piled on the shame was broken. As Ortberg puts it, the man was able to taste the grace he taught about.”
― John Ortberg Jr., Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them

“Failure is not an event, but rather a judgment about an event. Failure is not something that happens to us or a label we attach to things. It is a way we think about outcomes. Before Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for polio that finally worked, he tried two hundred unsuccessful ones. Somebody asked him, “How did it feel to fail two hundred times?” “I never failed two hundred times in my life,” Salk replied. “I was taught not to use the word ‘failure.’ I just discovered two hundred ways how not to vaccinate for polio.”
― John Ortberg Jr., If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat

“One of the great illusions of our day is that hurrying will buy us more time.”
― John Ortberg Jr., The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People

“No matter how little money we have, no matter what rung we occupy on anybody’s corporate ladder of success, in the end what everybody discovers is that what matters is other people. Human beings who give themselves to relational greatness—who have friends they laugh with, cry with, learn with, fight with, dance with, live and love and grow old and die with—these are the human beings who lead magnificent lives.”
― John Ortberg Jr., Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them

“According to a much-traveled analogy, if we put a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will immediately hop out. But put the frog in water that’s at room temperature and heat it slowly, and the creature will stay there until it boils to death. Put him in a lethal environment suddenly, and he will escape. But introduce the danger gradually, and he will never notice. The truth is that the dangers to which we are most vulnerable are generally not the sudden, dramatic, obvious ones. They are the ones that creep up on us, that are so much a part of our environment that we don’t even notice them.”
― John Ortberg Jr., The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People

“As frustrating as people can be, it’s hard to find a good substitute.”
― John Ortberg Jr., Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them

“Those who believe they believe in God but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself. MADELEINE L'ENGLE”
― John Ortberg Jr., Faith and Doubt: Embracing Uncertainty in Your Faith

“The movie Bull Durham was written by a man who grew up in the faith and was disillusioned by the church. It begins with the female lead saying, “I believe in the church of baseball. I've tried all the major religions and most of the minor ones … and the only church that truly feeds the soul is baseball.” Later in the movie the Kevin Costner character recites his creed: “I believe in the soul … the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch … I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in long, slow, deep, soft kisses that last three days.”4 My wife liked that one. A little too much. My wife is a Kevin Costner fundamentalist. Kevin said it; she believes it; that settles it.”
― John Ortberg Jr., Faith and Doubt: Embracing Uncertainty in Your Faith

“Ever console or scold people hurt in human relationships that satisfaction comes from God alone? Stop. Adam's fellowship with God was perfect, and God Himself declared Adam needed other humans.”
― John Ortberg Jr., Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them

“The decision to grow always involves a choice between risk and comfort. This means that to be a follower of Jesus you must renounce comfort as the ultimate value of your life. And”
― John Ortberg Jr., If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat

“We have largely traded wisdom for information, depth for breadth. We want to microwave maturity.”
― John Ortberg Jr., The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People

“we owe love to all people, but only to a proven friend are we to entrust “the secrets of the heart.”
― John Ortberg Jr., Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them

“When asked to identify what the law is about, Jesus’ response was simply “Love God, love people.” He named a fundamentally different way of identifying who are the children of God: “Do they love God, and do they love the people who mean so much to him?”
― John Ortberg Jr., The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People

“Jesus put it like this: You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Others have come before you. Others will come after you. But this is your day. If God’s kingdom is to manifest itself right now, it will have to be through you. God himself will not come to take your place. You are on a mission from God.”
― John Ortberg Jr., If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat

“In some ways, “waiting on the Lord” is the hardest part of trusting. It is not the same as “waiting around.” It is putting yourself with utter vulnerability in his hands.”
― John Ortberg Jr., If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat

“Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. DIETRICH BONHOEFFER”
― John Ortberg Jr., The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People

“There is a very important theological distinction between being a prophet and being a jerk. What burns deeply in the heart of a true prophet is not just anger but love.”
― John Ortberg Jr., Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them

“A career may end with retirement and lots of “toys.” A calling isn’t over until the day you die.”
― John Ortberg Jr., If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat

“If you want to be your own god, you have to settle for living in a tiny universe where there is room for only one person.”
― John Ortberg Jr., The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People

“Pride moves us to bow down before a mirror rather than before God.”
― John Ortberg Jr., The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People