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"I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
(Philippians 3:14)
William Borden graduated from high school in 1904. He lived in Chicago at the time, and his parents gave him quite a high school graduation present: they sent him on a trip around the world. When he returned, he entered Yale University, but by this time, he was already a millionaire. His family owned the Borden dairy company, a successful corporation that we are familiar with today, as most folks have heard of Borden Milk. But Bill Borden was quite different. His friends at Yale noticed that he, more than anything else, loved Jesus Christ. While on his worldwide trip, he decided that God was calling him to be a missionary. A friend told him he was throwing away his life, and he wrote these words in his Bible: "No reserves." While a student at Yale, Bill Borden lived for Jesus Christ in a very conspicuous way. He wrote in his journal as a student, "Say 'no' to self and 'yes' to Jesus every time." During his first semester at Yale, Borden began a prayer meeting for freshmen, and it grew to 150 people meeting each morning before breakfast. By the time he was a senior in college, 1000 of the 1300 students were involved in prayer groups on campus! When he graduated from Yale in 1909, he was offered many high paying jobs, but he turned them down to pursue his call to ministry. He wrote in his Bible these words, "No retreats." Borden then went to Princeton Seminary to continue his education, and on December 17, 1912, he sailed to Egypt to study Arabic. After his studies, he planned to go to China and serve as a missionary to reach Muslims. But while in Egypt Borden contracted spinal meningitis, and in one month, on April 9, 1913, he died. News of his death was in every major newspaper in America. Before he died at the young age of 25, he had written two more words in his Bible. Under the words "no reserves" and "no retreats" were the words, "No regrets."
(Taken from: http://home.snu.edu/~HCULBERT/regret.htm)
Stories like that of William Borden remind me of the greatest Christian to ever live: the Apostle Paul. Paul lived a life of unremitting passion for Christ. His great desire was to make Jesus known in places He was not known. Romans 15:20-21 state, "And so I have made it my aim to preach the Gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man's foundation, but as it is written: 'To whom He was not announced, they shall see; And those who have not heard shall understand.'"
Are you pressing toward the goal of the grand prize of the call of God in Jesus Christ? Can you say you are living a life of no regrets? Perhaps you need to realign your priorities with God's priorities. His plan for you is to know Him and then boldly make Him known in your world of influence. Let us live for God with such passion so that on the day when God calls us heavenward, He says to you and me, "Good job."
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