By The Rev. J.C. Austin (NOTE: This is an expanded version of the sermon The Rev. Austin presented) I’ve had some wonderful transcendent moments in my life, but there’s only one that I would really call a conversion experience. It happened in, of all places, Giants Stadium in New Jersey, about 12 years ago. It […]
By Rev. J.C. Austin Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes How do you measure, measure a year? Those lyrics are the opening lines of the song “Seasons of Love” from Rent, one of the longest-running and most successful Broadway musicals […]
By Rev. J.C. Austin The knuckles on my fingers had turned bone-white as I gripped the steering wheel hard. I took a deep breath and forced myself to relax slightly. The car wasn’t even moving, after all. But it was about to be, and that was what I was afraid of. I was sitting in […]
By Rev. J.C. Austin I was a wrestler in high school. Not many people grow up wanting to wrestle the way many people want to play baseball, or football, or basketball. I had never thought about it myself until a friend talked me into trying out. I did, and discovered that I liked it. Well, […]
By Rev. J.C. Austin “We entreat you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” You, the people of the Corinthian church, you need to take action and be reconciled to God; that’s what Paul seems to be saying. Maybe he was having a bad day when he wrote this. Did Paul make a mistake? […]
By Rev. J.C. Austin I recently found out that one of my friends has never seen any of the Star Wars movies. Not a single one. Now, in the great scheme of things, that’s not a big deal. But it was interesting that, until that moment, it never occurred to me that would or even […]
By Rev. J.C. Austin One of my all-time favorite videos on YouTube is entitled, “The Exact Moment a Musician Realizes He’s Made It.” It is only 28 seconds long, and features Marcus Mumford, the lead singer and songwriter of the band Mumford and Sons, beginning one of their songs not long after their debut album […]
By Rev. J.C. Austin When I was in ninth grade, my youth minister canceled Halloween. I’ve mentioned before that for some reason my otherwise very mainstream Presbyterian congregation in Atlanta hired what turned out to be an essentially fundamentalist youth pastor for a couple of years when I was in high school. She’s the one […]
By Rev. J.C. Austin “Eat the frog first.” That’s one version of a proverb that has some different versions. That’s the simplest one. An expanded version is, “If the first thing you do each morning is eat a frog, you can go through the rest of the day knowing you’re done with the worst part.” […]
By Rev. J.C. Austin The other day I was looking for what’s called a “plug-in” for my Internet browser, which is sort of like an optional extra feature to let you do things more easily when you’re online. I have plug-ins that do things like clip articles I see online into an app where I […]