Author: Jon Gauger

The phone screen says the same thing every morning. As I swipe to look at yesterday's step count, it speaks of the new day just begun, "No data." Meaning, I haven’t taken a single step (okay, not technically true—it’s about 50 steps from my bed to the phone in the office). The point is, there’s nothing to report. Hence the statement, “No data.” But that doesn’t last for long. Like many folks, I’m hounded by the daily drive to get those magical ten-thousand steps in. So when working at home, having finished early morning devotions, I’m off for a 40-minute…

Call it a case of nostalgia.  Or maybe it’s proof of our advancing age.  Many of us miss the America that was kinder and gentler toward folks who revere the Bible and its Author.  We miss the old country. That’s well and good to a point.  The problem is, I want that country too much.  Maybe you, too?  We’re not the first.  I'm pretty sure believers in the first century longed for the "old country" of safety once persecution broke out. But that didn't stop them from taking a stand for Christ. Noting their legacy of endurance, Hebrews 11:16 says…

Who would believe it was even there? In the first week of March? Under a pile of melting snow? A weed! Not just any garden variety nuisance, this was a tuft of the dreaded Creeping Charlie, the wicked weed that battles us for lawn supremacy every summer. Diana and I were raking off the flower beds in our front yard when we spied the modest growth. With no small sense of grim and grit, I pried the thing out of the soil. Satisfaction was mine! Until I found another. And another. Yanked those out, too. The war against Creeping Charlie…

It juts 165 feet into the sky and has lit the coastline since 1874. The St. Augustine lighthouse is more than just a landmark. It is a tower of living history (its light is still in use today!). One bizarre chapter of that history unfolded in 1986.  Bullets fired from a .30-06 rifle aimed directly at the light. Those shots ended up shattering 19 prisms in the Fresnel lens. Hank Mears, who served as the caretaker of the light from 1968 to 1989, immediately called the FBI. After carefully combing the area, agents discovered powder burns on a nearby palm…

It’s called Theraputty. To four-year-old Ava, it was "firm play dough." My wife somehow acquired a plastic tub of the green stuff used in exercise regimens to strengthen muscles and joints. At $27 per pound on Amazon, it’s not cheap. But it is fun. Sitting at the kitchen table, we spent hours crafting shapes and critters of all sizes. I attempted a cat, but Ava wondered where the front legs were. Appropriately chastised, I made a horse that did have four legs. This Ava immediately trotted off to her personal pasture. My next attempt was a cube, which she plucked…

Free speech is muzzled. Christian viewpoints are silenced. Cancel culture is a seemingly unstoppable stampede. Have you ever asked yourself how we got to this place?  There is no single answer.  But let me tell you what I think is at the core of much of it: a hijacking of language. This hijacking took place when Christians—and others—who disagreed with the alternative lifestyles many embraced were told our opposition was “hateful.”  Mind you, I disagree all the time with my wife—and she with me.  That doesn’t mean we hate each other. Any parent of a teen disagrees with their kid’s…

What is it with some of us guys? Our eyes can process that there’s a problem—staring us in the face. But our fears keep us from taking action. Example—my garage. As arctic conditions continue, the utility door (just learned that’s what they call the small one on the side of the garage) is failing to latch.  The tongue doesn't seem to be long enough to catch the strike plate.  This is not the first time the problem has surfaced.  Not the second, either.  Or the third. (And, um, there's the problem). At first, I chalked it up to old age….

What do you like to do on vacation? Our kids call it "lighthouse hopping."  It's when my wife and I visit lighthouses. For us, the more, the merrier (hence the word, "hopping").  One hundred ninety-eight years ago, the U.S. Congress appropriated $5,000 to build the Saint Augustine lighthouse in Jacksonville, Florida.  In1874, an updated lighthouse replaced the original—one that I recently climbed. That lighthouse is 165 feet tall, with 219 spiral steps leading up to an observation deck 140 feet above the ground.  Though the climb will cost you a few minutes (and a few calories!), the views of Matanzas…

Question: What’s worse than losing your keys? Answer: Not knowing that you had them in the first place! I remember the weekend when we went out to our camper…minus the keys.  Since we'd left one of the hatches unlocked, and since that hatch opened into the trailer, we shoved one of our little kids in that hatch (well, in a nice way) and coached them on how to unlock the door. Recently, four-year-old Sade listened as her mother read about China missionary Gladys Aylward.  In one tense scene, Gladys was summoned to a prison and asked to stop the fighting…

Recently, I walked by the St. Johns County Fire Rescue Station where I noticed the doors to all the fire trucks were open and a power cord charged each vehicle’s battery—constantly.  Firemens’ boots were positioned by each door, ready to slip on. Speaking to one of the rescuers I said, “You guys seem really committed to being ready” (I’m sure I came across as Captain Obvious). He explained, “Once the alarm sounds, we have one minute to get into the truck.  In two minutes we need to be out of the station and on the road to rescue.”  Hence the…