Lent starts on February 22nd, two and a half weeks away. Traditionally it is a time for giving up minor luxuries, although the true purpose of Lent is to examine our lives and drop off the things which hinder our relationship with Jesus.

I liken Lent to rebooting your computer or other electronic devices- starting over to get rid of the clutter and to gain a renewed sense of purpose.

This morning as I was praying, the Lord showed me that social networks such as Facebook and Google Plus take up productive time in my life. These things, which I originally engaged in to help my ministry by making contact with people in less formal ways, now prevent me from doing more useful things while taking up my attention with an endless stream of trivia. One of the ironies of modern life is that we have more tools for communicating with one another than any previous age, yet we use them as a means of keeping people at a safe distance rather than to stay close.

For Lent I am going to try to disengage from social networking sites.

I will continue to blog and I will occasionally post on the Facebook pages of the church and our bookshop.

I am going to use the next couple of weeks to work out the practicalities of this. For example I already use the instant messaging application pidgin for chat on various networks. Some people prefer Facebook messages to email- so can I accommodate them easily?

That's my plan for Lent.

I want to encourage everyone over the next couple of weeks to ask God about the areas of your life which need pruning. Then plan to take action in Lent to re-orient your life around God's purposes.