A Reflection for the Monday of the First Week of Lent 

"Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life." How many of us have struggled to say and truly mean this phrase? I know I have. It seemed silly to me to assume words can be anything more than inspiring. How can they give you life? 

As students at Yale, we're encouraged to find a passion: classes that we enjoy, extracurriculars in which we love to participate or research that takes up all of our time. We bury ourselves in our passions and sometimes forget everything else. Sometimes, we're lucky and we even feel fulfilled in them. Passion to us is fire, speeches and presentations. I get so excited and feel so free when I feel like I've found my passion, my purpose, my goal! 

But God so clearly asks us today to add to our fiery passion one that is still as powerful but much quieter. Today, we hear God give Moses the Ten Commandments and Jesus offers us a new passion. He asks that we're kind, generous, honest and loving. He asks that we slow down, take care of each other and love passionately and quietly, just for a second. What a beautiful request! "Slow down," he says, "and listen to my Word."

It's renewing to hear a message from our faith that it's important to slow down, especially in the midst of the incredibly fast-paced lives we all lead. I'm sitting in that life-giving message today, and I hope you can do the same.