Become New with John Ortberg

What can still grow in your life after you’ve been hurt? John Ortberg explores that question through a story author James Michener remembered from childhood: an aging apple tree, eight rusty nails, and an unexpected harvest. Years later, after heart surgery and other painful health challenges, Michener returned to that image. He resolved to keep bearing fruit. John connects his story with the poetry of John Milton and the lives of Hank and Jan, a couple whose faithful care for one another be...

What do you do when God seems absent from your story? Maybe you still pray, read Scripture, and show up, but the closeness you once felt is gone. Does that mean you’ve done something wrong? Has God left? John Ortberg explores those questions through John of the Cross, the sixteenth-century spiritual writer associated with the phrase dark night of the soul. John explains that this phrase can mean something more specific than a difficult season: a time when the pleasure and reassurance so...

Everybody wants to make a difference. We spend billions developing leaders, and schools, businesses, and churches all talk about raising up the next generation of them. But when Jesus began the movement that would change countless lives, his invitation was just two words: “Follow me.” In this episode, John Ortberg asks what it really means to be a follower of Jesus. He challenges the idea that followers are passive or weak. A follower of Jesus can be courageous, curious, persistent, and will...

Is there a habit you keep trying to break, or one you wish you could finally build? You’re in good company. When John Ortberg asked the Become New community about their habits, more than a thousand people responded. They named struggles with worry, anger, procrastination, screen time, negative self-talk, and much more. Some felt too ashamed even to say what their hardest habit was. Into that struggle, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you res...

What do you do with a part of yourself you wish you could change? Maybe you feel limited by your personality, your abilities, your age, or something your body can’t do. It’s easy to compare yourself with someone else and believe that if you just tried harder, you could finally become enough. In this episode, John Ortberg invites us to practice radical acceptance of our limitations. Moses, Gideon, Jeremiah, and Abraham each had reasons to think they weren’t the right person for what Go...