Things are gonna get easier, better, brighter. God was working all things together for my good. I knew my circumstances weren’t going to last forever, that I didn’t have to believe in fear. “When I listened to this song,” he says, “it brought back joy. Things were so uncertain, and Austin was overwhelmed with worry about what was going to happen to his family and his career. Austin was on tour with Winter Jam, a dream since he was a boy, when everything began shutting down due to COVID-19. The recording came about in response to the 2020 pandemic. One of the brighter spots on the project is a cover of “Ooh Child,” originally recorded by The Five Stairsteps. When you think you can’t make it out, Jesus can make a way.” “That’s the goal of the book and this song, to share my history and my story.

“I’m an artist whose life has been radically saved through a very desperate situation,” Austin says. Writing the song brought up so much pain (and ultimately healing) from his past, he decided to expand the idea into a book. “Jesus Can,” a vibey story song about his growing up years, is Austin at his most vulnerable and most redeemed. We don’t have to wonder if it will happen, because it’s something He’s said He will do.” “But He says, come to me and I will give you rest. “All of us can find our spot in that, needing rest,” Austin says. While wrestling with bone-deep weariness, Austin came across Matthew 11:28, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” He wrote “Rest for Your Soul,” trusting that his heavy burdens weren’t meant to be carried alone. Every available moment is filled with the constant needs of his young children. Dad to three kids ages five and under, rest is hard to come by on a good day. “Rest for Your Soul,” is a song written from a place of personal exhaustion. There’s a rich sincerity in his voice, a lived-out testimony, as he sings wake up sleeper / come to the light / Christ is alive / death don’t live here anymore. Drawing on the sermon he delivered as a teenager, the song speaks directly to anyone sleepwalking through life. Title track “Wake Up Sleeper” challenges listeners to be fully alive with Jesus. He’s stayed true to that first conviction, writing songs filled with a joyful energy that calls all people, believers and unbelievers alike, to open their hearts to God’s amazing grace. I wanted to write music for broken people.” “I knew I wanted music to be a part of my life, but I also knew I wasn’t going to do it to get girls. Austin made the decision there at camp to not only commit to music, but to follow Jesus with his whole life. He’d been judging Jesus for his own family’s brokenness, being hardened by the people around him whose faith was anything but authentic. Instead, Austin heard this message from one of the camp leaders: Don’t judge Jesus on the broken people He came to save. He went to camp to learn to play guitar, hoping to impress girls. It was at a church music camp at the age of 13 where Austin’s life was changed forever. As an eight-year-old boy, I was living two different lives, expected to be perfect on Sunday and then living in fear at home.”

“Our family was the family that pretended to be perfect on Sunday but was falling apart behind closed doors. “I grew up in church, was surrounded by church culture, but I hated Christians for a long time,” Austin says. With catchy hooks and impassioned, Spirit-fueled lyrics, Austin hopes to inspire those who may have become disillusioned with Christianity or perhaps have left the faith altogether, something he’s all too familiar with himself. Jesus says to us, get up, wake up sleeper.”Īustin’s newest project, Wake Up Sleeper, is inspired by that early sermon, a reminder that Jesus is ever present in whatever situation we might be facing. “We are all dead in our sin, without a hope or a savior. “It’s a parallel for our own lives,” Austin shares. When Jesus saw a funeral procession going by, He ignored the custom, went and touched the coffin and said, “Arise.” The story is significant because for spiritual teachers of the day, participating in a funeral would make them ceremonially unclean. He landed on Luke 7, the story of Jesus interrupting a funeral. Wracked with nerves, Austin searched the Bible to find something he could teach. Instead, he was assigned to deliver the message. He was prepared to play guitar and lead worship, something he was comfortable doing. When he was an 18-year-old youth group kid, Austin French drew the short straw for his church’s youth-led Sunday service.

Wake for young souls lyrics