Humility

I recently heard the story of a young Scottish minister who was asked to be the guest preacher one Sunday morning in a large church in Glasgow. As he prepared to preach, he strode to the pulpit with eyes blazing, head held high, and with a demeanor of clear confidence in what he was doing -- and it bordered on arrogance. He preached and the sermon clearly did not go well. When he was done, he descended the pulpit slowly with his head bowed and tears in his eyes. The church's older and much more experienced pastor was there that morning, and so the young minister asked him what he did wrong. The wise pastor answered, "If you had gone up the pulpit the way you came down, that would have been a good start."

It reminds me of the story of the two covenanter pastors who were standing at the foot of the steps that led to the scaffold for their execution. One turned to the other and said, "I am less fearful to go up these steps than the steps into the pulpit."