Lent 2026 - Day 25: Rewiring Your Brain to Become a Lawyer

“The best way to look back at life fondly is to meet it, and those along your journey, warmly, kindly and mindfully.” — Rasheed Ogunlaru

Living mindfully isn’t easy. But what does it really mean?

The simplest way I’ve found to explain it is through something ordinary. Washing a dish. When you’re washing a dish mindfully, you’re focused only on that act, the feel of the soap, the water, the texture of the dish in your hands. You’re fully in the moment. Nothing else exists.

It sounds simple, but it’s not how most of us live.

Researchers have shown that multitasking actually reduces productivity. Our brains can only fully focus on one complex task at a time. Think about trying to write an email while on a call. You’re either focused on what you’re typing or what the other person is saying, not both. And that’s when mistakes happen.

We know this. And yet we keep doing it.

I’ve always had a strong ability to focus. At work, I used to ask for a few minutes to finish what I was doing before shifting my attention. I’ve learned that our time and our presence are some of the most valuable things we can offer.

Law school has taken that and turned it into something else entirely.

Most of my time now is spent reading, briefing cases, memorizing rules, and working through complex hypotheticals. It requires a different kind of attention, not just focus, but precision. You’re not just reading for understanding. You’re reading to analyze. To separate facts from emotion. To identify what is legally relevant and what is not.

And that’s where things start to shift.

Because law school doesn’t just teach you how to think.

It teaches you how to think like a lawyer.

Which means learning, very quickly, that what is morally wrong is not always illegal. And what is illegal is not always morally wrong.

That tension sits with you.

You read cases where harm is obvious, but the law offers no remedy. Or where the law is applied in a way that feels technically correct but ethically unsettling.

And then you step outside the classroom and realize those same dynamics are playing out in real time.

Like legislation being passed that restricts where trans people can exist safely. Framed as something as simple as “bathroom policy.” But if you sit with it, even for a moment, you know it’s not really about bathrooms.

It’s about control.

It’s about defining who belongs and who doesn’t.

It’s about using the law to enforce boundaries that go far beyond the surface-level explanation.

It's about using the law to enforce morality.

And law school trains you to analyze that. To break it down. To understand the argument being made.

My Legal Writing professor once said that she took cases she knew she could win. Because at the end of the day, that’s what we’re being trained to do, build arguments and win.

And I get it. That’s the system. That’s the job.

But something about that hasn't been sitting well with me.

Because if the goal is always to win, then what happens to truth? What happens to justice? What happens when the system itself is built in a way that doesn’t treat people equitably?

It made me think about something I’ve noticed, not just in law, but in life.

There are rules. And then there are people who benefit from those rules. And sometimes, those same people are the ones who get to bend them, reinterpret them, or change them entirely.

So you start to wonder… what game are we actually playing?

And who decided the rules? Old white guys, that's who.

Because if the rules are constantly shifting to maintain power, then maybe the goal isn’t just to get better at playing the game.

Maybe the deeper question is whether we should be playing the game at all.

Maybe we don’t win by becoming the best at a system that was never built for everyone.

Maybe we win by refusing to lose ourselves inside it.

By choosing integrity when it would be easier not to.

By choosing people over power.

By remembering that behind every case, every policy, every argument… there are real lives being impacted.

Because in the end, the only thing that truly matters is how we treat each other.

Lenten Reflection

“To be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” — Romans 12:2 (NRSV)

That’s where mindfulness comes back in.

Because it’s easy to get pulled into the mechanics of it all. The rules. The arguments. The frameworks. To start seeing everything as an issue to be spotted and analyzed.

But at some point, you have to pause and ask:

What do I believe is right?

What kind of lawyer am I becoming?

And what am I going to do with this way of thinking once I have it?

Lent is a season that invites us to sit in that tension.

Not to rush past it. Not to numb it. Not to over-intellectualize it.

But to stay present.

To pay attention not just to what we are learning, but to how it is shaping us.

Because rewiring your brain is one thing.

Holding onto your humanity while you do it?

That’s the struggle and that's the work.

Take care of yourselves.

Take care of each other. 💛

#LentenReflection2026 #SpiritualWilderness #HeavenOnEarth #Justice #FaithInAction #LawAndOrder