John Mauck
Attorney and Partner
Mauck & Baker
Chicago, IL

John Mauck admits he picked a career in law largely because of peer pressure. It was the 60s. He was a student at Yale where liberal-leaning peers argued that law and medicine were the only acceptable career fields because they offered the opportunity to control society and affect social change. Mauck liked the idea that he could make money and make a difference.

LifeChasers: So where did God come into the picture?

Mauck: After law school, I went into real estate law. I was very successful but I wasn’t satisfied. I thought there had to be more to life.

About a year later I became a Christian. The night I became a believer I said to God, “I know you use priests and ministers…but I’m a real estate lawyer. Show me how You can use me in my secular law practice.” Then—so I would know that God had actually heard me—I asked Him to send me a new client who was a believer. I figured either God was unlikely to hear my one prayer out of four billion people on the planet or He could hear everybody and He was on top of things!

The next day I got a call from an Arkansas man looking for a “big city lawyer.” He had homesteaded some land in Alaska and sold it to a developer who ended up in bankruptcy court. He wanted help getting the mortgage out of bankruptcy court because he was dependent on those monthly mortgage payments to underwrite the expenses of a Bible School he ran in Arkansas.

LifeChasers: Great story! But we both know God doesn’t always answer our prayers—at least not in the way we expect.

Mauck: True. God eventually stopped answering those kinds of prayers because, as I later realized, I was trying to manipulate God and was operating out of greed and pride and not out of a servant heart. Once I gave up God as a rabbit’s foot, things got better. The great thing was that God didn’t abandon me. He mentored me through it.

LifeChasers: What’s the toughest part of being a Christian attorney.

Mauck: It’s finding the right balance between depending on my experience and knowledge of the law and depending on God.

LifeChasers: What is the biggest professional disappointment you’ve faced?

Mauck: It was my second church zoning case and my first venture into federal court. We won at the trial level. Then the city appealed to the Federal Court of Appeals, which reversed the decision. I lost a lot of money and wondered where was God? I thought I had been serving God’s purposes by taking the case. I felt confused and depressed.

LifeChasers: What helped you get through it?

Mauck: It took time alone with Him, unloading my depression and anger and letting Him comfort me with gentleness and compassion. It was a big help having close Christian friends praying for me, especially my law partner, Rich Baker. My wife is a big encourager but it took another lawyer to understand what it was like to work on a case for three years—with all the struggles and emotional commitment—and then see it fail.

Eventually, God gave me insights into why we lost. And I sensed at some level that he was using the experience to work through some things in my heart and my character.

LifeChasers: Do you believe Christians can make a difference in our culture?

Mauck: When I turned 45 I got contact lenses. One lens corrects nearsightedness and one corrects farsightedness. I read well with one and see traffic lights well with the other! I think that’s a good metaphor for how I practice law and see God changing the world. Some days it means just helping someone settle a simple dispute. That’s an “up close” kind of change. But there’s also the bigger work of helping to bring about the larger purposes of God on earth. We can be part of that, too.

LifeChasers: Give us an example.

Mauck: I worked for a long time with six Chicago churches challenging the constitutionally of Chicago’s zoning ordinances as they applied to churches. Ultimately, we lost the case in the Federal Appellate Court. But, as a result of losing that case, I was asked to testify before Congress on the issue. Congress eventually passed a federal law that makes it much easier for all religious groups to build buildings under every zoning law in this country. God used what seemed like a failure at the time to bring about a nationwide change to make it easier for churches to expand.

I learned that not all battles are clear victories or defeats at the time, but every battle matters. Many must be fought long-term, but individual Christians can make a difference in turning the tide and changing lives.