History

With my story I need to begin it at the very beginning. I was born 23 weeks premature and every thing that could go wrong did go wrong. One of my lungs collapsed, the scars of which I still carry, and I contracted neumonia. The doctors told my parents that I was more than likely going to die (thank God they were wrong!). After spending about 100 days in hospital my parents were able to take me home. However it didn’t end there. It was then discovered that I had Cerebral Palsy. I have had the privellege of growing up in a Christian household where we went to Church on Sunday as a family and I went to Sunday School. I remember thinking as a kid that everybody was a Christian and I was confused when a kid one time told me that they weren’t.

A significant circumstance in my conversion was my disability. Whilst I don’t have it as bad as some people, I thank the Lord that I am not wheelchair bound and that I’m not majorly physically impaired, it tested me as a kid in primary school. Whilst other kids were running around and playing hand-ball (no headers back in the old days!) I’d fall down getting grazes or I wouldn’t be able to get to the ball. This made me at first confused and then over time as I grew older I became bitter and angry at the kids around me to the point where I’m comfortable to say that I hated them and the world in general. As a result I became bitter, lonely and hate filled and to top it all off I thought that if I just ignored my disability then I could somehow get past it. Then I had my operations.

Due to how my disabilty affected my gait my spine was going to be twisted and I would end up in a wheelchair unless an operation was done. My family and I went down to Melbourne for the first operation that involved my legs being snapped in half and reset amongst other things. Needless to say I was in incredible pain following the operation and I took months to recover. Then after I had recovered from the first round and was enjoying getting some strength back I had to have another operation to remove pins and plates from my legs that had been left in them following the first operation. I was gutted after the second operation as all the gains I’d made up to then had been wiped out. I can’t remember exactly when during this period but I distinctly remember lying on the hospital bed and thinking that I was tired of trying to fight the world because the world was a dark and unforgiving place that would beat you down again and again with no mercy. Whilst as a kid and up to that point I’d never conciously doubted whether God existed I remember thinking that even if Christianity was fake only in Christianity does God prove Himself as Lord worthy of worship and following to the Gates of Hell and beyond. From then on I’d say I, by the Lord’s grace, became a Christian. From there it has been a continual process of growing, fighting and being disciplined in my Christian walk. I pray that God would keep me and all His people on the narrow path that leads to righteouness. I have always enjoyed reading history. When I was a kid some of my favourite memories involve me burying myself away in the library during lunchtime and reading a book about the Normans in England or the Roman Empire. I felt like I was going to another world and in some sense I really was. I find C.S. Lewis said about the necessity to read old books helpful when it come to history. History is one of the best and sharpest teachers we have.I am currently in the first year of my PhD in the subject of Medieval heresy and for any other budding Medievalists or Church History nuts, like yours truly, this area need a lot of attention.

Blessings,
Jack Hanrahan-Shirley