Our society exalts success. Acquire a good job, make lots of money and make it to the top. Be popular and attract lots of followers on social media. Those who sit on the sidelines will be left in the dust of this stampede towards what the world calls "success."
Who can truly define success? The world shouts fame, money and power, but we see that even those who have obtained it never seem to quite “arrive.” You see, the world’s definition of success always cries for "more!" "Enough," they soon realize, is never truly enough.
How does God define success?
For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."
Isaiah 55:8-9
What man terms as “successful” or “accomplished” you will not find God’s definition. In fact, He calls us to something completely different. While the world is shouting “me, me, me!” followers of Jesus are called to sacrifice. We are called to lay ourselves down in pursuit of God’s kingdom, not our own.
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
Matthew 16:26
"You would be throwing yourself away as a missionary.”
This was not the first time William Borden would hear words like these expressed by friends and family. After his father’s death in 1906, he became a millionaire and had the world at his fingertips. It called loudly for this bright young man, yet he was pulled in another direction; a direction which surfaced ironically from seeing the world itself.
As a high school graduation gift, William had been given the opportunity of a lifetime to travel the world. During his journeys, the comfortable life he had lived and knew was shattered; never to be repaired. As he witnessed the suffering of people around the world and the deep need for Jesus; the world lost its grip on this young man.
In the cover of his Bible, William wrote two words in answer to his friend’s disapproval of him becoming a missionary: “No reserves.”
During his freshman year at Yale, William began each morning by reading the Bible and praying with a friend. Eventually, more young men began joining them until what began as a small meeting grew like wildfire.
At the close of the school year, one hundred and fifty students met for morning Bible study and prayer, and by William’s senior year, one thousand out of Yale’s one thousand three hundred students were gathering. A simple act of faithfulness to God was changing a university.
"He certainly was one of the strongest characters I have ever known, and he put backbone into the rest of us at college. There was real iron in him, and I always felt he was of the stuff martyrs were made of, and heroic missionaries of more modern times."
—William’s Yale classmate (Taylor, 149)
Aside from his ministry on campus, William had a deep compassion for orphans and widows and the drunks of New Haven, resulting in the founding of Yale Hope Mission. Many late nights found William leading a drunkard to a place of lodging or a restaurant to share the love of God and lead him to Christ.
Offers from prestigious companies were turned down after graduating Yale, with William instead moving on to Princeton Seminary in New Jersey to do graduate work. Two more words were added to the inside cover of his Bible, “No retreats.” Even in the face of pressure and pulls to build his career, there was no backing down; he had gone all in and would not look back.
After Princeton, William Borden set sail for China, but never arrived. He planned to minister to the Muslim Kansu people of China, so he first went to Egypt to study Arabic. During his stay, he became ill with spinal meningitis and died on April 9, 1913 at twenty-five years old.
Before his death, two final words were written in His Bible: “No regrets.”
While the world would view William’s life as a waste, his life was the definition of true success in God’s eyes. He rejected the false profit of the world to lay down his life, pick up his cross and follow Jesus.
William Borden never reached China as a missionary, but he lived every day as a missionary wherever God placed him. He never overlooked an opportunity to be about his Father’s business. May God also give us the grace to resist the pull of the world and yield each day of our lives to Him and the work He has planned for us.
"No reserve. No retreat. No regret." - William Borden
Culbertson, Howard. “William Borden -- No Reserves. No Retreats. No Regrets.” William Borden -- No Reserves. No Retreats. No Regrets., 2022, https://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/regret.htm.
“Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
Taylor, Mrs Howard. Borden of Yale '09. China Inland Mission, 1930.
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