Student Testimony: Austin Shanley

I lived a fairly normal childhood for the most part. I had loving parents, good friends, hobbies and after-school activities. And like most good people in America, I went to church every Sunday. Church was pretty routine for me; during service, we would sing and praise, listen to the pastor, and have communion. After service, we’d go to Sunday school. When I was 12, I went through confirmation at my church, a week-long process for all kids my age who were members of the church ending with us affirming we’d hold fast to the Bible’s teachings. It didn’t mean much to me, just another part of the routine. Once I finished high school and headed to college, the normalcy slipped away, and after attending a service my first week of school that left a horrible taste in my mouth, I wouldn’t return to church for several years.

College was a roller coaster for me, and I didn't find a friend group until spring of my freshman year; and even then, it was almost constantly surrounded by drama. I continuously sought council with my wiser friends for advice on dealing with the issues. Though I disliked the drama, it pushed me to determine what kind of person I was and what kind I wanted to be. I decided to try to be the best person I possibly could, and I’d do so by seeking counsel from wise men and women and by gaining as much experience as I can. This quest for experience led to a lifestyle where I was as far from God as I’d ever been. I started partying and doing things I never would have done before.

Occasionally, I’d find myself thinking about my relationship with God. Unfortunately, my experiences led to some serious disagreements with the moral code of Christianity. I eventually concluded that I wouldn’t follow God’s ways, and if I went to Hell because of it, at least I’d be doing what was right. It seemed to me that God was an evil hypocrite. Why would I choose to follow a God who would give His people the commandment “Thou shall not murder” then tell them to kill an entire city of people, leaving nobody alive and burning everything? What’s worse is that I always believed God was real, meaning when I died, I accepted the fact that I’d go to Hell.

Sometime after Christmas my junior year, a friend of mine, whom we’ll call Tony, and I were invited to the wedding of a couple who’d graduated. Since the wedding was close to his home, he invited me to stay with him for the weekend. We went to the wedding on Saturday then headed back to stay the night at his house before heading back to campus on Sunday. Luckily for me, and by God Almighty’s grace, Tony was a man of God. He encouraged me to go to church with him before leaving, and I didn’t want to wait at his house alone, so I obliged. After church, we drove back to campus. This drive was the turning point for me. Tony began to ask me about my opinion of God and Christianity. I told him my thoughts, and he had the courage to challenge my worldview. After that car ride, I was left with a very important piece of information I had not considered when I had formulated my view of God. Even though God gave the instruction to kill everyone in that city, despite one of the commandments being not to murder, the destruction and death of that city was also the judgement of God against their sin. I learned that God is a being of absolute and perfect justice.

For the next 7 months, I was gradually learning more and more about God and His word and was beginning to want to be a Christian. I began asking God for what the missing piece was. I knew that I wasn’t ready to be a Christian, but I didn’t know why. My senior year was going to be starting soon. I had been going to one of the local Baptist churches in the area and decided to get involved in the student ministry there. I will never forget the first meeting we had that year. One of the kids felt led to share the Gospel. He had explained it like this:

“Imagine that God assigns everyone an empty bucket when they are born. Every time you sin, God pours a little water into the bucket to represent His wrath and judgement on you. And when you die and are judged by Him, He takes your bucket which is now full and pours His wrath on you. However, when Jesus died on the cross, God the Father took your bucket full of His wrath, and the buckets of all His children, and poured it on Jesus Christ, so God’s justice would be satisfied on your behalf.” I was completely blown away. I had never heard anything like it. It felt like the missing piece had finally been put in place, but I was still not ready to surrender my life to God completely.

That following Sunday, God removed any reservations I had from being saved through the sermon. Funnily enough, the title of the sermon was “The Missing Piece.” While I don't exactly remember what the sermon was about, there was one verse the preacher used that stuck out to me. It was James 2:19: “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder!” This cut right to the heart of my worldview. As someone whose life goal was to be the best person I could possibly be, learning that the belief in God that I currently had was no better than that of demons destroyed the foundation I had built my life upon. I assumed it also meant the righteousness I had was no better than the demons, as well, which meant my quest to be a good person was futile. I finally realized I needed God to deal with my sin because I had no other hope. After church, I immediately went home, got on my knees, and gave my life over to God. When I finally got back up, I felt this incredible relief, like a large weight was lifted off of my shoulders. It felt like my life was now being run by someone other than me, God the Almighty.

The path that God led me on before salvation has a tremendous impact on how my walk with God has been since that day. Though I spent most of my life growing up in the church, it was the few people who had the courage to challenge what I believed that showed me God’s way was better. You could see they weren’t just regular churchgoers, that God’s word had significantly changed them because they were living it out day to day. Those people for whom church on Sundays is just part of the routine are who God has called me to minister to because I was once just like them. I want to help them understand what it means to truly surrender and put their trust in Jesus Christ.

To whoever is reading this, I’d like to leave you with one bit of advice from my story: Our relationship with God was never meant to be an add-on to our life to fit in with everything else going on. Our desperate need for God should consume and transform every aspect of our lives in the pursuit of knowing Him. Do you really desire God more than all of the things of this world?

Austin is the embodiment of the phrase “on fire for the Lord”. Constantly serving and proclaiming the Gospel, he’s quickly become an integral part of the community.