"Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom, the blessing, and the curse.” I wonder what it would have been like to be in the crowd of people summoned by Moses, listening to this speech. The passage we read today from Deuteronomy is full of grand imagery, sweeping language, and vivid metaphors. It’s hard to imagine what it must have felt like in the crowd of Israelites listening to Moses speak. Would these powerful words bring excitement? Fear? Exhilaration? Trepidation?

This week we are setting out on our Lenten journey together, and that might itself bring some mix of zeal and anxiety. Lent is a time for us all to take stock, evaluate, and prepare, and to think hard about how all our choices—big, small, or in between—bear fruit in the world. It might not be every day that we are confronted with a momentous, clear-cut choice between, say, life and death, or doom and prosperity. Instead, on most days, we are confronted with a million little choices about how we are going to move around in the world and how we are going to relate to each other, and to God. Are we going to go out of our way to help someone with a kind word? Are we going to say something mean about a co-worker? Are we going to take the time to listen when a friend needs to talk? Are we going to be rude to the cashier who messed up our coffee order? Are we going to do the right thing even when it’s hard? Are we going to help repair the world, or are we going to spend hours doomscrolling the news headlines on our phones? (Asking for a friend on that one.)

 My goal for this Lent is to try to slow down a bit and notice how my own choices throughout the day—the good, the bad, and the ugly—are bearing fruit. We are called, as Christians, to be light for the world and salt for the earth; I’m hoping to keep that top of mind over the next forty days and really take stock of what kind of choices I’m making.