Sometimes the path I’m on seems awfully egotistical. Especially when I bump up against my own human failings. Who am I to think I’m qualified to teach anything about God to anyone?

Frankly, those moments of doubt comfort me. If they were to go away, then I’d have reason to worry. Becoming a pastor, teacher or rabbi is heady stuff. I mean that in the intellectual sense, not the “gee, this is a thrill” sense.

It’s dangerous, I think, to spend too much time studying and “inside your head.” It leads to feelings of superiority, especially intellectual superiority. And that’s dangerous.

Sheltered away in a cozy study, surrounded by books and Torahs, contemplating God, it’s easy to feel you’ve got a handle on life, spirituality and haShem. It’s life among others that roughs you up, exposes your human failings, reveals that you need Y’shua.

To anyone who thinks they have mastered patience, gentleness and self-control, I offer this challenge: drive in rush hour and see how long it lasts. I think we need that human interaction - as messy as it can be sometimes - to keep us humble enough to know that whatever we know, we don’t even come close to knowing it all. Let along putting it into practice.

If our souls were computers, we’d clearly be in need of circuit board repair, every one of us. Will going down the path of becoming a messianic rabbi cause me to lose that perspective? I hope not.