Professional wrestler Steve "Sting" Borden shared his testimony of drastic life-change after coming to know Jesus Christ during Saturday's "Modesty Matters" event at Hawaiian Falls, a Christian-owned water park. While the wrestler was not one of the guest speakers at the event, he did share his testimony with Gospel Herald reporters before signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans.
Steve Borden was raised in a home with "moral values," but was never much of a church-goer. His mother came to know the Lord when he was a child, as did two of his brothers as well. Because of their new-found faith, Borden felt that his relationships with his family were awkward and he moved away to pursue his wrestling career. As he gained worldly success, he continued to lead a lifestyle that was not pleasing to the Lord.
Borden had often had worldly remorse for his sins, but it was never until this moment that he began to have Godly sorrow - "the kind that brings repentance and leads to salvation," he says. "I had more money, more power, more of everything than I ever wanted in the world ... and yet there was something terribly wrong. Everything was slipping through my fingers," he said. It was in that moment that the Lord truly revealed Himself to Borden. He quoted James 5:16, which says:
"Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working" (English Standard Version).
Borden had realized that he had given God much "lip-service" in the past, but that now he desperately needed God's help. "Nothing was going to fix me, and I didn't want to live the rest of my life like that," he said. The Lord began to move in a profoundly powerful way in his life - by the power of the Holy Spirit Who now resided in him, Borden was able to completely walk away from the life of sin that he had been leading that night in August 1998. It was a "radical, drastic change" that happened overnight - everything had changed, "Even the language that came out of my mouth," he said.
Borden currently travels all over the world with Impact Wrestling. He was grateful to have the opportunity to show his support for modesty at the Hawaiian Falls event Saturday, and expressed his concern that many in the church dress and act quite similar to the rest of the world. Parents have "thrown in the towel ... they're allowing their sons and daughters way too much freedom in this area," he said.
Hopefully God will help believers to see the beauty of modesty through events like these - "I'm hoping that the church will awaken," Borden says.
