Author: Jon Gauger

Do you enjoy routine maintenance?   I don’t, for two reasons: “routine” and “maintenance.” There is nothing fun about either one.   In my experience—and perhaps yours as well— routine maintenance is rarely routine. Drive your car in for a "routine" oil change, and they invariably present you with an $850 list of "critical" issues you "absolutely must address!" Stroll into the dentist's office for a "routine" check-up, and you walk out with a $1,500 quote for a crown.   Last weekend, we decided we'd be good homeowners and clean out our dryer vent—routine maintenance recommended at least annually. But…

How big does something have to be for you to consider it giant-sized?  For cereal makers, the answer appears to be “not very big.” Consider two boxes of cereal in my hands (see photo below). On my left is what Quaker calls a “giant” sized box of Life cereal. In my right hand is what Kellogg’s considers a “mega” sized box of Frosted Shredded Wheat (don’t judge our cereal choices, please—that might be another blog). I’d say that one box is certainly full-sized—-maybe even large. But mega? No way! The “giant” box of Life cereal weighs in at 24.8 ounces. Yet a quick bit of…

Flipping through The Ultimate Book of Randomly Awesome Facts, I stumbled upon the following statistic: The total amount of money in the world adds up to 60 trillion dollars.  That’s a 60 with a whole lot of zeroes! John D. Rockefeller was the world's first billionaire and, at one point, the world's richest man. Since he was a billionaire in the early 1900s (when a billion was actually worth something), he is still regarded as the wealthiest person in modern history. When a reporter asked him how much money it takes to make a man happy, Rockefeller famously replied, "Just…

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….