In the middle of this month we will once again eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday and begin Lent on Ash Wednesday. What difference if any - will Lent make to you this year?

Perhaps the answer is to be found in spring, for in spring we see a huge change - away from the cold, dark deadness of winter and into the warmth and light of spring and the glorious new growth which they bring.

This is change which doesn't come as part of a gargantuan struggle of self-denial, but as an irresistible response to a change in conditions. Maybe we can learn from this. Instead of trying to improve ourselves by pulling on our own bootstraps, perhaps we can just allow natural change to take place in us.

For this to happen, we'll need to do two things. The first is to open ourselves up to God's presence. It will be different for each of us, but just make time to be in the presence of God. This doesn't have to be forced, or hard work. Find time to make yourself a cup of coffee and sit outside in the sun in a moment of warmth. Be grateful to God for this moment of joy; chat to him about things that worry you or hopes you have. Let God lead you into the right next thing for you. If you can, share your thoughts with trusted friends and family - they can be a great help in clarifying your thoughts.

Then, if you find God leading you in a particular direction, use your common sense and find out more. I found myself challenged by the Copenhagen summit to think more about my carbon footprint on the planet. An online check surprised me by showing that the intercontinental flight I'd made was trivial, and that my efficient little car with its low mileage didn't even register! What I actually needed to do to change was to address other areas of my life!

So, what is Lent to be for you this year? What will it do for you? What will it do for others?

Looking Forwards

Looking forwards at the beginning of a New Year can be exciting, worrying, hopeful, sad and many other things. Often it's a confusing mixture of several emotions.

I write this as we empathise with the people of Cumbria and their ruined homes and businesses, and we are waiting to see what might develop from the Copenhagen Climate Summit. If there is one thing that we can be certain as we look forward into 2010 and the years following, it's that we will have to learn to live differently.

Our slowness in reacting to the clear and evident dangers of climate change (no - I think Climategate is feeble science!) shows how reluctant we are to learn to live differently. We are like a child playing in the evening and being called in to go to bed. We delay and delay - just one more go! - until it's too late and we are in trouble.

The problem is perhaps that the lifestyle (a word only coined in the 60s) we are used to is addictive. We have enjoyed the comfort, the travel, the gadgets and the personal freedom. More than one generation has grown up thinking that this is what the world is like.

Yet we don't need to know much of geography or history to see that this has been nothing more than a bubble, a brief flowering of leisure and excess. We will have to change.

Perhaps we will find it easier if we look at some of these things we will have to give up. A frenetic and debilitating lifestyle. A lack of community. A lurking sense of guilt at the inequality of the world. A lack of time for the things, and people, we really enjoy.

I think I could be willing to give up some of those things. How about you? And maybe it would be more fun if we all encouraged one another locally to a different way of life? Jesus said, 'I came that they might have life, and have it in all its fullness'. Perhaps we could try to live that life together?

We are pleased to announce a new area on the website. It is called Knotty Problems and can be reached via the 'Writings' menu. Each of the Knotty Problems will have first appeared in The Net and readers of that magazine and this website are invited to share their thoughts and comments on the issues discussed. Each article will either have a link to the comments already entered or will have an "Add your comment" link, which will take you to a form where you can add your own comment.

We hope you enjoy the articles and we especially look forward to sharing your comments with our other readers

The Blackdown Benefice is made up of six churches serving the five parishes of Buckland St Mary, Churchstanton, Corfe, Otterford and Pitminster, in the boundaries of the Blackdown Hills AONB.

You can find your way around our website using the menu at the top or you can go straight to the individual parish pages by clicking on the parish name below.