The Lord revealed the race to me through my best friend over two years ago and I had no idea that the race was what He had in store for me. Jess has been one of God’s greatest blessings to my life and has walked with me through my entire Jesus journey. Here is her testimony of coming alongside me in my walk with the Lord even from 5,000 miles away and what the Lord is teaching her back in the states!
“My Name is Jessica Sherman, but Rachel calls me Sherm. I am a current senior at Rachel’s Alma mater, St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin. I met Rachel when I was a freshman and she was a sophomore, but It wasn’t until she was an RA in my dorm her junior year that I really got to know her. That year was a year that wrecked both our lives and one that we often go back to now and praise God for. The work that He did in our lives that year caused massive agony on our hearts and a lot of tears were shed in those months spent in the 20×20 ft dorm rooms. That year the Lord was reshaping my life, extracting the areas that were inhibiting me to move forward in my relationship with Christ. At that same time, Rachel was searching for the love of the Lord and where to place her identity. It wasn’t until we both walked away from a car accident without a scratch on our bodies or on the car, that we both reached our breaking point. Rachel stopped fighting and surrendered to the Lord and I stopped fighting the Lord’s pruning in my life.
Relentless; That’s what comes to mind when I think about the span of our friendship. Rachel never gave up on me during that time even when I wanted nothing to do with her. I pushed her away in every way possible and she continuously showered me with a love, which she didn’t see at the time, but was from the Lord. He was using her to show me the things I struggled to accept, He was not going anywhere, no matter how much I pushed Him away. Instead, it gave Him an excuse to remind me of how incredible His love is for me which I had never experienced before, pure and wholesome. Somehow in the midst of the brokenness between us two, the foundation of our friendship was built.
It was hard for me to fathom the fact that Rachel was able to see Jesus through the cracks of my broken frame that year and it was hard for Rachel to grasp that the Lord had used her when she had yet to accept Him into her life. That’s the beauty of our Creator, He understands that we are never going to be perfect, but because of His son Jesus Christ who came and died for us, we no longer have to live in slavery of our sins. Rather, we get to live in freedom and redemption from a God that extends to us relentless mercy and grace. God uses every one of us in ways that we may never be able to see and in ways that we would never expect.
So where does that leave us now? Rachel is currently more than 5,000 miles away and the Lord is still using her right here in this tiny town of De Pere, Wisconsin. Every time she posts a blog about the rawness that she is experiencing from the Lord in the desert of different cultures, people, and places, the Lord uses that to reach people thousands of miles away living at home comfortably in our own corner of the world. It reminds us that he is greater than the roadblocks, finals, car crashes, debt, and whatever else that constantly eats away our time and causes anxiety. God can use anyone; it doesn’t matter the labels that the world places on your back or the past that has been expelled over time, or the voice inside your head that says that you’re unqualified. It’s the willingness to say yes when he says go, the patience from the fruit of the spirit, the prayer to see the beauty in a person when all they may see is the cracks, and to fully surrender trust into the Lord’s hands knowing that sometimes that path may lead to some major heart reconstruction. As we all read her blog we are reminded of the world outside of our own, a reminder that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit constructed to move towards His will, and to fulfill the great commission to make disciples of all nations.
There is a whole world out there, a world that the Lord yearns for the gospel to be reached and celebrated. But that world also starts with you, it starts with your hometown, your city, your state the Lord has placed you in right now. The one thing that I always come back to and is slowly becoming engraved in my journey with Rachel through our time apart from one another, is the relentless abandonment that I first experienced from her in the beginning days of our friendship. Go the extra mile for the person that seems to want nothing to do with you, talk about Jesus even if you are standing alone, feel the heartbreak and praise the Lord for it. Be relentless, simply because he is relentless with us, you never know the impact of what small actions can do for the glory of the kingdom. That’s all He wants from us, to work hard in the tasks we are given and the gifts that have been instilled within us, to bring glory to His name. It could cause us to gain another sister or brother in Christ, or it couldn’t, but ultimately that’s not up to us, that’s in God’s’ hands, it’s up to us to plant the seeds, to water the seeds, and to allow the Lord to use you by simply saying yes.”
