Author: Jon Gauger

From a distance, it looked impressive. Quietly majestic, even. Hiking through the park, I wandered off the (literally) beaten bath to check out a tree whose circumference was 136 inches. That's 11 feet four inches around. Only up close would you notice this tree has a hole in the trunk. It's just about at eye height, so you can lean into the thing and see grass and trees on the other side (see photo below). But what forces of nature could hollow out a tree? Drought? Disease? Rot from within? I'm sure this tree has a story, likely a sad…

Letdown. That's the emotional state for many of us on December 26. And no wonder. We've shopped, dropped, wrapped, cleaned, and prepped. Then, all that work gets gobbled up in the time it takes to eat a piece of pie–almost. We’ve looked forward to seeing family. We’ve looked forward to being with friends. We’ve looked forward to a restful break. And now most of that is in the rearview mirror. But could I suggest we're looking in the wrong direction? Instead of looking back or looking down—we should be looking up. Consider. If you know Christ as Savior, you are…

It’s official! Today, December 19, we are just seven days away from…the start of the gift return line! Consider: Around 1 in 6 Christmas gifts will be taken back to stores. Approximately 1 in 3 three U.S. adults will make a return or exchange this Christmas season. 18-24 year-olds are five times more likely to return a gift than those 55 and up. Every year, Amazon returns cost the company more than $800 billion! We have a friend who is famous—or maybe infamous—for all her shopping returns. At least one store has placed her on a No-Fly list. She now…

It's our day-after-Thanksgiving tradition. I ascend the dusty heights of our garage door overhead storage, retrieving the interlocking plywood pieces that make up a nativity scene. The crèche is then assembled on the front lawn and illuminated with an LED spotlight (which sometimes actually works). One night, as we pulled out of our driveway, Diana noticed a curious visual playing out on our home siding. It was an enormous shadow bearing a striking resemblance to the Joseph figure in our manger scene! The spotlight seems positioned at just the right angle and spacing to make Joseph look huge. Ironically, his…

Do you have the virus? I’m not talking about the flu or this year’s strain of Coronavirus. I’m talking about the malady called “Must Be Right.” Christians have a biblical mandate to be and do right before God and man. But too many of us have adopted the world's standard of polarized conduct toward those who differ from us. So, we become not only aggressive but, at times, abrasive. As Bible-believing Christians… We are right about the doctrine of salvation by faith alone. We are right about the inerrancy of Scripture. We are right about the sacredness of life. We…

Okay. I admit it. A blog about thankfulness on Thanksgiving might be too on the nose. But I have a question I've been wrestling with that I'd like to ask you. Are you thankful—or merely thank-ish? By definition, someone who is thankful is—well—full of thanks. So much so that thankfulness oozes out of your pores. Thankfulness is a resident of your heart, not merely a visitor. But many of us live at a different level—one I’m calling “thank-ish.” Here, we occasionally enter moments of gratitude. But it’s not our sweet spot, not something we think we need to work on….

It was supposed to be a relaxing evening at church, singing favorite songs. Instead, the lyrics of a hymn I hadn't heard in years plagued my soul.   Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord; Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word. Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak, Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.   As the music to this old hymn soaked my soul, a barrage of uncomfortable questions fired at me. I take time for Hulu—but do I take time to be holy? I take time for football—but…

Many deemed last week’s election “the most important of our time.” We Christians said/heard that over and over. But whether you loved—or loathed—the results, there's a much more critical initiative whose outcome is yet to be determined. I’m not talking about the House of Representatives. I’m talking about your house. And mine. I’m referring to America’s need for revival—which always begins at home. Clearly, no political power can bring that about. Nor can any federal program save us from decadence and deadness. We need revival, plain and simple. The only question is, do we see the desperation we are in—and…

Fall is a sober spin on beauty. When out for a walk, I never tire of fingering brightly colored leaves in my hand. The hues are so intense that they seem more like a Photoshop project gone wild than a display of unedited nature. But even as I cradle those leaves in my palm, I’m reminded of beauty’s brevity. Were I to scoop up any of those leaves and take them home, by nightfall, they would be curled, and by the following day, their intensity faded. Whether a sunset, a full moon, or a newborn's face, beauty is fleeting. You…

At the age of 17, he was arrested and sent off to Buchenwald, a Nazi concentration camp in east-central Germany. Eric was sure his fate would be no different than the other 55 thousand who were shot, starved, or hung there. But he survived and was liberated by American troops in April of 1945. Fast forward to 1948. Eric was now 21, and the brand-new nation of Israel was fighting a war for its survival against invading forces from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. With the fire of the Holocaust still burning in his heart, Eric enlisted in…