What does giving something up for Lent assume about the way the world is?
For many of us, giving up something for Lent assumes that the something we’re giving up is inherently bad and shouldn’t really be delighted in the rest of the year. Or, at least, that the amount of delight we receive from this something is bad. In other words, even though the world was made for human pleasure, we feel quite ambivalent about enjoying it. However, giving up something for Lent doesn’t have to mean this. For many people, it’s not the thing per se that is at issue—it’s their relationship to the thing. The act of giving that thing up merely serves to expose what otherwise has remained hidden. —Adam Young Lent assumes not only a tension between good and evil, but a healthy tension between good and good; it assumes that there is a right ordering of good things. Beyond critiquing the dissonance of a broken world, Lent looks toward the harmonies possible when things fill their proper place amongst virtues. In giving up a good thing for a time, we develop a healthy longing for it
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