The wheel, the codex, the ice-cream. These are among the things so awesome they need not be re-invented.

Also, a 40-day Lent plan for 2013. It turns out Stewardship UK are putting on a thoughtful, well-designed, user-friendly Lent practice called 40 acts. I’m inviting you to join me in joining them.

40 acts of generosity, one for each day of Lent (not including Sundays), with a different theme each week. No need to dive in and aim for every day, if that seems a bit steep. You could decide by yourself or as a household to pick one thing per week, perhaps, and work on it together.

They’re not all about money. The headline act, for day 31, is ‘listen.’ On day 25 the challenge is to share a joke with someone. The invitation is to practise generosity with all parts of our lives: money, time, energy, hospitality, patience, kindness. Who could argue with that?

I like 40 acts for a few reasons. It’ll helpful for me to inhabit generosity in a bunch of different ways, look at it from different angles, let it seep into each part of my life.

It’s manageable. It’s one specific part of my character to consider and exercise over six weeks. I should be a lot fitter by Easter, but not exhausted.

The resources are excellent, from what I’ve seen so far. They’re going to email me daily reflections, and the kids’ resources look really great if you have school-ish aged kids in your life to do this with.

So I’m going to blog through 40 acts of generosity (or a few of them, at least!) throughout Lent, and I’d love you to come with me.

One last reason I’ve chosen this for blogging, not just for doing personally: I think this could be enriching and appropriate for the wide range of people who meet here. Just as some of you who aren’t very churchy get right into Advent and Christmas, there’s no reason Lent needs to be the preserve of practising Christians. Especially if it’s not about giving stuff up this year!

It’s always nice to have a project. If you and whoever you live with or belong with would enjoy having a six-week focus on generosity, complete with downloads, emails, blogging and social media (any or all or none of those is fine), then join in.

Head to 40 acts to sign up, or just drop a comment in below to let us know you’re interested. Or if you’re doing something else for Lent, it’d be great to hear what.

Ten days till Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, 13 February. Give it some thought, eh?

Photo credit: Wikipedia