QuoteProject
The problem with spending your life climbing up the ladder is that you will go right past Jesus, for he's coming down.
John Ortberg
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote suggests that in the pursuit of success and ambition, one may overlook spiritual and moral values represented by Jesus.

John Ortberg's quote highlights the irony of focusing solely on worldly success and ambition, represented by 'climbing up the ladder.' It implies that in this relentless pursuit, individuals may miss the important spiritual guidance or presence of Jesus, who symbolizes a descent toward humility and the importance of prioritizing moral values over material achievements.

Themes

SuccessSpiritualityValuesLifeAmbition

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about prioritizing values over career success.

More from John Ortberg

People with the strongest and healthiest sense of calling are not obsessed with their calling. They are preoccupied with the Caller.
John OrtbergRead
It may be a very bad thing that I needed God to die for me, but it is a wonderful thing that God thinks I am worth dying for.
John OrtbergRead
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 OrtbergRead

Similar quotes

And we are magic talking to itself, noisy and alone. I am queen of all my sins forgotten. Am I still lost? Once I was beautiful. Now I am myself
Anne SextonRead
When a man is born...there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets.
James JoyceRead
...human beings are a species splendid in their array of moral equipment, tragic in their propensity to misuse it, and pathetic in their ignorance of the misuse.
Robert WrightRead
When we try to describe the truth with words, we distort it and it's no longer truth--it's our story. The story may be true for us, but that doesn't mean it's true for anyone else.
Miguel Angel RuizRead
And you know what it is? San Francisco a golden handcuff with the key thrown away.
John SteinbeckRead
His mouth opens. From inside him comes a slow stream, without breath, without interruption. It flows up through his body and out upon me; it passes through the cabin, through the wreck; washing the cliffs and shores of the island, it runs northward and southward to the ends of the earth. Soft and cold, dark and unending, it beats against my eyelids, against the skin of my face.
J. M. CoetzeeRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by John Ortberg | QuoteProject