The past two days of reading from Joshua have read like legal descriptions of property; I suspect they are the ancient versions of just that. Joshua has led the people into the promised land, and now is parsing it up between the tribes of Israel. The land of Zebulun “goes in the other direction eastward toward the sunrise to the boundary of Chisloth-tabor”, etcetera. After pages and pages of descriptions like this, the land is finally divided up. During Joshua’s final recital to the gathered people, he says that the people need to choose who they will serve.
I’m reminded of a hymn from an earlier version of the hymnal in my tradition with a lovely and haunting Irsish-ish tune. The words, however are what got the hymn nixed from the current hymnal. “Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide… twixt that darkness and the light.”
The problem isn’t that we are given a choice. The problem is the notion that we are given just one choice, one chance. No. It’s not just once in our life that we have to choose. It’s every day, hundreds of times a day we have to choose. Or better, we get to choose.
Some argue that every decision we make, all day long, is an opportunity to choose the light versus the darkness. I’m not sure about EVERY choice, but definitely there are far more than I can remember. Every interaction with another person, every opportunity to love or show grace.
So far this morning, barely an hour awake, I’ve already had a dozen opportunities to make that choice, and there’s only one other person awake in the house with me now. I’m heading into a 3 hour online work meeting, where I’ll have a dozen more opportunities. After that, I’ll rejoin my family Saturday, with dozens more.
It’s intriguing to think that every decision is an opportunity to move towards or share that light. What would my day look like if I remembered that as I walked through the day?
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