His name was Bill Borden. He had been born into a wealthy family, After he graduated from high school in 1904 he felt a need to help the poor people of the world. He surrendered his life to Christ and decided to become a missionary. A friend of his told him that he would be wasting his life as a missionary. In response Bill wrote two words in the back of his Bible. The two words were,

“ No Reserve.”

As Bill prepared for the mission field he entered Yale University. While in college, he spent his spare time ministering to those around him. In his journal he wrote that his philosophy for life was simply to “say no to self and yes to Jesus every time!” After he graduated from Yale Bill received many high paying job offers, no one would have blamed him for taking one of these jobs. However at this time he wrote two more words in the back of his Bible they were

“ No Retreats”.

Bill Borden was a millionaire but he realized that his responsibility was to be about the Father’s business. His missionary call was to minister to the Muslim Kansu people in China. Bill planned to spend time in Egypt learning the Muslim language before going on to China. But he never made it to the mission field.Shortly after arriving in Egypt he contracted Spinal Meningitis. In less than a month he was dead. Shortly before he died William Borden wrote two more words in the back of his Bible these words were,

“No Regrets”.

Was Bill Borden’s life wasted? Some people would say; if only he had stayed in the States, with his money and talents maybe he could have done great things for the Kingdom of God. But that was not God’s plan. When his story was told it is said that many hundreds of people were inspired to surrender to the mission field. Because of this, more people were reached for Christ than Bill could ever have reached himself.

The Bible tells us that God’s plans are greater than our plans and His ways are greater than our ways. Bill Borden knew that obedience to God is the only way to be truly successful . His story is a challenge for us to surrender to God with no reserves, to follow Jesus with no retreats and to live in obedience to the Holy Spirit with no regrets.

Douglas & Deborah Huff

From Down Where The Pavement Ends