A few days ago, I was listening to a podcast and the story of Mt. Everest was being told. The highest mountain in the world is located on the border of Nepal and Tibet standing at over 29,000 feet. The number of people that have made it to the top is a little less than 7000. Many more thousand have not made it. Since 1992 over 300 have died who had the goal of reaching the top. At the base camp, those who tried and failed come together in a common hall just to talk. The atmosphere is anything but festive. The word that seems to dominate the conversations and attitude of those talking and listening is that of regret. They had the dream. They had climbed lesser mountains and had trained extremely hard for Everest, but they failed. Regret, along with the dream of what could have been, is always ringing in their minds.
Listening to this, my mind naturally began thinking about my regrets. Do I have any regrets? “Yes, I’ve had a few” to steal a line from a Frank Sinatra song. I don’t know of a preacher, pastor, missionary, Christian, husband, father, wife, mother or any other office we might hold who wouldn’t try and do some things different if they could do it all again. I don’t know if this would happen, but if I could do some things over, I think I would. I’d come to Christ earlier. I would be a better student in high school and college. I would be a better student of the Bible. I wish I had learned to pray deeper earlier. I wish I’d been better with our family finances in those early years. I loved being a father and would do it again in a heartbeat only hoping to be better at it. I wish I’d been wiser as a husband. You can think of many things in your life that you would do differently just as I have. But the harsh reality is we can’t change a thing about the past. Mulling that over mentally, I truly believe that God can take all our failures, give us forgiveness, and make trophies of grace out of each of us. Paul, the great apostle, wasn’t lily white. He called himself the “chief of sinners” (I Timothy 1:15). He persecuted Christians and specifically the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord turned him into the greatest Christian of all time. If God can do that for him, he can certainly do great things with us. Did the great apostle always reminisce about his failures. No, he did not. Philippians 3:13, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended (arrived): but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.” You and I may have grand dreams about what we want to do for the Lord only to fall flat on our faces. We don’t quit. We get up and start again. This is the process of sanctification. God began working on you the moment you trusted Christ and will continue to work on you until He comes and gives you a new, glorified body. So, until He comes, keep living for the Lord, keep growing in the Lord, keep serving the Lord, keep worshipping the Lord, keep on and on and on. If we get on this path and stay on this path, I think we can live without regrets.
Years ago, the Borden family was extremely prominent. One of the sons, William, seemed to excel and he was slated to lead the family’s company a few years after his father stepped down. After graduating from high school in 1904, he was given a trip around the world as a graduation gift. There was a problem brewing. He didn’t want to attend college for business and become a part of the company, ultimately assuming control. He had become a Christian and wanted to serve Christ. The family tried everything they could to persuade him. “Think of how many people can be helped with the money you can make?” (That in itself is a powerful argument, and I do believe God gives some of His people the ability to make money to enhance the work and kingdom of God.) He began giving away his possessions which didn’t sit well with the family. His birthday arrived and a huge party was planned. The family hoped to make this occasion one that would change his mind. His mother gave him a new Bible for his birthday which would play prominently in William’s testimony. The party didn’t end well. He kept giving money and things away to help the Lord’s work. On a blank page in front of this new Bible he wrote two words, “No reserves.” He declared that God wanted him to be a missionary which horrified the family. He did go to college and even did graduate work at Princeton. But being a missionary was his dream. He sailed for China with the intent of reaching the Chinese Muslims for Christ. He traveled to Egypt to study Arabic. Pressure began to mount, but he stood firm. The departure day arrived. Boarding the ship, he turned and waved to his family. From the dock, still they begged him to stay. In his berth aboard the ship, he opened this same Bible and wrote two more words, “No retreating.” Only a few short weeks later the family received a telegram that he had become sick with spinal meningitis and had died. William Borden was dead at 25 years old. His body would be returned home along with his few possessions. The funeral was conducted and each one thought, “What a waste.” His mother began going through the possessions that were sent home. In those possessions, she found the Bible she had given him on his birthday. Thumbing through the Bible she found the page on which he had written “No reserves”, “No retreat.” Then she saw two more words her William had written just before his death, “No regrets.” William Borden decided to give himself and his life to Christ and at the end he had no regrets. How about you? How about me?