The film Chocolat is based on the book of the same name. The film relates the story of a small French town during Lent. Everyone is trying hard to avoid rich foods but what should open at the same time? A chocolate shop. It is agony to walk past the shop with its velvety chocolate smells. You can't help but think that the townsfolk had missed the point – especially when one of the most self-righteous characters breaks into the shop and gorges on the chocolates inside.

Lent is not about that kind of ‘self-denial.' There is very little value in simply giving up stuff! It's about giving stuff. Namely, the giving of your life to Christ. Giving up stuff for Lent, as the rest of the New Testament reminds us, does not really achieve anything.