For the last few days I've been at Parkside Church (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) attending the Basics Conference with Alistair Begg. As he approached the pulpit on Tuesday morning, he began fiddling with his microphone pack, realizing that he forgot to turn it on.
Then Alistair began looking all about the pulpit for something, confessing a few seconds later, "I can't find my Bible. I thought it was up here." He then make some sort of joke about how impressed everyone now was with the host pastor! His assistant quickly brought him a Bible. Alistair looked at it and said, "But this isn't my Bible." Everyone laughed. Alistair cracked it open, then handed it back to his assistant and said, "This won't do. I need large print." More laughter.
Stalling for time, Alistair made some off-the-cuff in his usually winsome way. After a few moments, his assistant approached him with another Bible. Alistair looked at it and said, "But this isn't my Bible." We all laughed again. Hey, at least it was large print! So, he settled for that one.
Alistair had us turn to the book of Jude and was about to say how it related to the theme of the conference — only he couldn’t recall the theme! Some of the pastors yelled it out, reminding him what it was.
Alistair went on to preach a terrific message on the book of Jude. As I wrote down notes from the sermon, I drew a little box near the top of the page, and in it I put three bullet points:
Mic not turned on
Couldn't find Bible
Couldn't recall conference theme
Next to the box I wrote, "Even the best can bungle things up!"
One of the many qualities I love about Alistair Begg is that while he takes the task of preaching seriously, he does not take himself too seriously. This is a sign of spiritual maturity, for it shows one’s self-awareness that everything doesn’t revolve around him.
Doing everything to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31) means not only doing our best but also laughing at ourselves when we bungle things up.