The reason our souls hunger so is that the life we could be living so far exceeds our strangest dreams.
John OrtbergIn a contagious world,we learn to keep our distance. If we get too close to those who are suffering, we might get infected by their pain. It may not be convenient or comfortable. But only when you get close enough to catch their hurt will they be close enough to catch your love.
John Ortbergsometimes we do not realize how much we have to be grateful for until it is threatened.
John OrtbergThere is such a love, a love that creates value in what is loved. There is a love that turns rag dolls into priceless treasures. There is a love that fastens itself onto ragged little creatures, for reasons that no one could ever quite figure out, and makes them precious and valued beyond calculation. This is love beyond reason. This is the love of God.
John OrtbergGod wishes to be seen, wishes to be sought, wishes to be expected, and wishes to be trusted.
John OrtbergYou must arrange your days so that you are experiencing deep contentment, joy and confidence in your everyday life with God.
John OrtbergYour Mission starts where you are,Not where you think you should be.Sometimes we're tempted to think that our current position/job/situation is a barrier to our mission, but, in fact, it is where it starts.
John OrtbergThe goal is not for us to get through the Scriptures. The goal is to get the Scriptures through us.
John OrtbergWe must learn to cast off our anxieties because we have so many of them. The world destroys spiritual life by generating constant anxiety. Jesus said that the life of the gospel is choked out by the cares of this world. We know this to be true yet we are more chained and tethered to the world than ever before in the human race.
John OrtbergEver 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 OrtbergNever try to have more faith - just get to know God better. And because God is faithful, the better you know Him, the more you'll trust Him.
John OrtbergWhen I repent, here is where it starts. I try to name my sin as honestly and as specifically as possible. Here is what repenting is not. It is not excusing my sin, minimizing my sin, it's not rationalizing my sin ... Repentance is getting painfully honest with God.
John OrtbergIf we are serious about loving God, we must begin with people, all people. And especially we must learn to love those that the world generally discards.
John OrtbergIf we do not become changed from the inside-out - if we don't morph - we will be tempted to find external methods to satisfy our need to feel that we're different from those outside the faith. If we cannot be transformed, we will settle for being informed or conformed.
John OrtbergBoth hope and pessimism are deeply contagious. And no one is more infectious than a leader.
John OrtbergThe 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.
John OrtbergFor many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it.
John OrtbergIn the beginning, we're told, was the word. Every once in a while someone shows up on the planet who is word-obsessed and word-gifted; and the light and darkness get named again. In our day, that someone is Buechner.
John OrtbergWe are tempted to live under the illusion that somewhere out there are people who are normal.
John OrtbergTrue joy, as it turns out, comes only to those who have devoted their lives to something greater than personal happiness. This is most visible in extraordinary lives, in saints and martyrs. But it is no less true for ordinary people like us.
John OrtbergThere are dozens of references to God in the Scriptures for every one to the figure of Satan. This reflects a sometimes forgotten theological truth that the devil is by no means God’s counterpart. He is a creature, not the Creator.
John OrtbergTo become grateful, I must learn that I can handle disappointment and delayed gratification with grace and perseverance. This is why practices such as fasting and simplicity are such powerful tools for transformation. The experience of frustration and disappointment is irreplaceable in the development of a grateful heart.
John OrtbergThe soul seeks God with its whole being. Because it is desperate to be whole, the soul is God-smitten and God-crazy and God-obsessed. My mind may be obsessed with idols; my will may be enslaved to habits; my body may be consumed with appetites. But my soul will never find rest until it rests in God.
John OrtbergPeace doesn't come from finding a lake with no storms. It comes from having Jesus in the boat.
John OrtbergThe Bible does not say you are God’s appliance; it says you are his masterpiece. Appliances get mass-produced.
John OrtbergPeople who are servants-humbly, honestly, and joyfully-keep getting revealed as the biggest winners. People who recognize and embrace their smallness keep getting bigger and bigger in God's eyes. It's the oddest scoring system.
John OrtbergThe greatest moment of your life is now. This moment is God's irreplaceable gift to you.
John OrtbergThe problem with spending your life climbing up the ladder is that you will go right past Jesus, for he's coming down.
John Ortberg"Sometimes in churches somebody will discover a particular vein of spirituality and seek to recruit others into it, or assume a superior position because they have found certain techniques - but no one actually wants to become like them."
John OrtbergWaiting on the Lord is a confident, disciplined, expectant, active, sometimes painful clinging to God.
John OrtbergJesus changed how the world thinks about science, medicine, human rights, education & more.
John OrtbergArt is built on the deepest themes of human meaning: good and evil, beauty and ugliness, life and death, love and hate. No other story has incarnated those themes more than the story of Jesus.
John Ortberg