Read this excellent article on Lent by Jane Williams:
Lent is a chance to take stock and imagine a changed world.
This is how the New Testament tells it, and that's why Jesus's followers "do" Lent. For a few weeks, we try to see that the world doesn't crumble if we don't have everything we want; we try to make ourselves and our resources that little bit more available for ends other than our own…
…there is really no point at all in a Lenten discipline that isn't about reimagining the world so that it revolves less about our own desires and more about the good of all. When Lent ends, that vision of the world doesn't. It's a world that is less about what I want, and more about what we all need, in which the good life for me is unimaginable unless it is also the good life for you.
Yes, Jane Williams' article really is excellent isn't it? It seems that observing Lent in a 'giving up chocolate' sort of way is becoming increasingly popular among people who are not involved in a church. Jane provides such a thought-provoking explanation of what Lent can be about - for the good of all and not just for the holier-than-thou.
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