Author: Jon Gauger

Mom is gone. She went home to be with Christ earlier this week.  We’re glad for her relief. But losing her feels like the sticky side of a Band-Aid being torn off a deep gash on your arm.  Or maybe your heart. Mom was the first to send a get-well card.  The first to remember your birthday. The first to visit shut-ins.  The first to send a thank you if you did the slightest favor. The first to send an email.  The first to give you a call and ask how your “thing” went—whatever your thing was. Her life was…

When you’re at the same house or the same office for thirty years, you collect stuff.  A lot of stuff.   That’s my situation at Moody Radio where, after more than three decades in a building called Crowell Hall, I’m moving to our brand new Chapman Center, which houses Moody Radio and Moody Publishing.  The new “Smart Studio” which will also double as my office is about a third smaller than my current space.  So instead of two full-size bookcases, I’ll cram everything on to just one. The round table and two chairs I’ve known for three-plus decades have almost become…

When you’re at the same house or the same office for thirty years, you collect stuff.  A lot of stuff.  Too much stuff.     That’s my situation at Moody Radio where, after more than three decades in a building called Crowell Hall, I’m moving to our brand new Chapman Center, which houses Moody Radio and Moody Publishing.     The new “Smart Studio” which will also double as my office is about a third smaller than my current space.  So instead of two full-size bookcases, I’ll cram everything on to just one. The round table and two chairs I’ve…

Found any spiritual messages in your food, lately?  It will come as no surprise that the web is filled with them. There’s Jesus as supposedly seen in an orange, Jesus on a pie crust, Jesus on a piece of toast—even Jesus on a French fry. How many of the visuals are the product of skilled Photoshop-equipped imagination versus authentic edibles, I know not. But I do have a story that is verifiably true.  Caleb is six and full of questions he asks with abandon.  When it comes to family devotions, don’t think you’re going to simply read from a Bible…

Somewhere after the 30th floor, our ears popped riding the elevator up to the observation deck of Chicago’s Hancock building. Traveling vertically at 20 miles an hour, the 1,030 foot trip took a mere 45 seconds. But if our ears popped a little, our eyes popped all the more once reaching the 94th floor. Peering out, it’s impossible not to take dozens and dozens of photos.   To the east, Lake Michigan is equal parts turquoise and tranquility.   To the north, a curving shoreline invites imagination and envy (who are these people who can afford to live on the…

It’s a busy day at O’hare.  I’m headed for the glorious city of Cincinnati, tourist capital of the world.  (Okay , not quite).  Hey—it is what it is.  One lady on my flight really is flying to a fabulous destination: the Bahamas.  She started in Minnesota and flew to Chicago.  From Chicago, she will fly to Cincinnati (my flight).  Then it’s Cincinnati to Miami.  From Miami she takes off and finally reaches the Bahamas.  Hate to guess what her total travel time is! Out the window I spot the usual logos plastered on planes large and small.  United, Delta, American,…

Good thing you didn't drop by our house for a visit last month.  Or the previous month.  Or the month before that.  The place has been a wreck—literally. We managed to drag out the installation of a new bathroom from March until mid-July.  And rather than enjoy it, we immediately (as in the very same day the toilet and faucets were finally connected) emptied our master bedroom to begin a major overhaul there as well. The joints where the ceiling meets the walls were cracked. So we had to rip out most of the paper seams, replace them, and then…

Do you ever wonder why Christians watch about the same amount of R-rated films as the rest of society?   Do you ever ask why Christians look at almost as much pornography as the world?  Do you ever wonder why Christians divorce at nearly the same rate as the secular culture?  I have a one-word theory: repentance. Whatever happened to repentance—the biblical concept of having sorrow over our sin?  Repentance means changing your mind and changing your direction: away from sin and toward godliness. In Matthew 3:8, Jesus commanded, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” If you and I claim Christ…

You kinda have to see her face to really understand.  Ava is 21 months old.  Her parents will tell you she is increasingly vested in the “terrible twos” stage, even if her arrival is a tad early.  Like most kids her age Ava makes sounds, is saying words and even tiny sentences.  She knows her animals and her acute sense of hearing identifies even the slightest chirp, woof, meow or moo.  A dog barks in the distance and Ava sticks out her index finger, seemingly beckoning the rest of us to listen.  A bird tweets in an overhead tree—her finger…

Early morning in downtown Chicago. I stepped into a cab almost immediately noticing Moody Radio was playing on the car speakers.   My driver was from the Ivory Coast and so I told him about my previous trips to West Africa, tossing in a few French phrases as best I could. Then I did the obvious and asked him about the station he was listening to. “It’s from the Moody Bible” he said. “That’s great,” I replied, and informed him that I worked at Moody—more specifically for Moody Radio—and that we were headed for the campus. “Small world,” he said,…