baby girl, Autumn, started making sourdough a few months ago. she quickly got her mama involved by sharing some starter with her.
lisa has jumped thoroughly and completely onto the sourdough bandwagon. she's worked for the past two or three months perfecting her starter, trying different recipes and taste-testing the results. She's made sourdough crackers, sourdough biscuits, sourdough lemon-blueberry loaf and sourdough banana bread. It's no wonder I have not lost any weight this year.
if you know anything about sourdough, you k now it's temperamental and requires a good bit of patience. you can't start and finish a loaf of sourdough in the same day.
the easiest way to make sourdough is to get some starter from someone else, put it in a glass jar and feed it with flour every other day or so. you know you're going it right when the volume of starter doubles in size.
but that's just the starter. when you're ready to make bread, you take a prescribed amount of the starter and add it to a mixture of flour, salt and warm water. then, over the course of the next several hours, you're committed to a cycle of folding and resting dough, before finally forming it into a loaf and baking it in a cast-iron dutch oven.
the finished product is perfection–serious goodness that goes with just about everything.
all this bread got me to thinking the other day that there are some pretty important spiritual lessons we can take from sourdough:
lesson 1: you can't start without starter
it's possible to make your own starter, but most people begin their sourdough journey when someone shares their starter with them.
similarly, there are JESUS followers who find him all by themselves, but most of us got our start when someone cared enough about us to say, i've got something in my life that can help turn your five-pound, dead sack of flour into something that is beautiful.
we call that discipleship. the apostle paul talks a lot about it in 1 thessalonians 2. after reading that passage, you get a pretty good idea of what it takes to share your starter with somebody else.
you need a relationship with the person you're offering advice to
you need courage to start the conversation
we are commissioned by JESUS himself in matthew 28 to go and make disciples. seems to me we ought to be asking our selves whether we're sharing our starter or simply feeding ourselves. disciple makers share their starter, and, by the way, they don't make it weird when they do.
it would be pretty strange for a sourdough baker to walk up to a random stranger, hold out a jar of starter and ask them to take it. is it any more strange for us to do that with our faith? how about taking some time to get to know someone. find out their name. ask about their family. hang out with them. you'll eventually get to the point where you have permission in their life to let them know about your faith.
lesson 2: you have to feed your starter
left unattended and unfed, sourdough starter will die. the same is true of our spiritual health and the spiritual health of the disciples we've shared our starter with.
when making sourdough, you don't have to throw out your starter if you're not ready to make any more bread. you can put it in the freezer and let it go to sleep. if we're not in an environment where we are being fed, you can bet your faith is going to fall asleep.
there's all kinds of ways to feed yourself or be fed. you've got to have exposure to GOD's word and to his people. you need to have components of prayer and worship in your life. i'll admit, sometimes it's hard to muster the want-to. sometimes you do read and you do pray, but you feel like nothing is happening. welcome to my life.
remember that nothing happens in the starter jar when you first add flour. it has to mix in and ferment. that takes time. there's a waiting period, and if you are waiting, that doesn't mean you stop feeding your faith. this is a process that requires faith, after a while, the starter will start bubbling and growing. and if it's slow to grow, just add a little warmth, and the flour will work its magic.
here's the thing: if you want to make sourdough, i can guarantee you'll never have bread if you don't feed your starter.
don't feel like feeding yourself? ask for the desire. i love how the good news translation explains it in philippians 2:23:
GOD is always at work in you to make you willing and able to obey his purpose.
the psalmist has a great prayer along those same lines, in psalm 119:169-176:
let my cry for help reach you lord! give me understanding, as you have promised. listen to my prayer, and save me according to your promise!...give me life, so that i may praise you; may your instructions help me. i wonder about like a lost sheep; so come and look for me.
when you share your sourdough starter, you don't just give them a jar without instructions. how many times do we do that with the people we lead to GOD? how weird would it be to just randomly give someone a jar with some white stuff in it and walk away? we have to give instructions, and walk with them through the process.
when we make disciples, we're not getting them to the altar and leaving them. we're feeding them, stirring them up, checking them for growth and feeding them again. that's discipleship.
lesson 3: growth requires waiting
we live in a microwave society. we want everything immediately. that's just not realistic, and it sure isn't going to happen when you're making good bread.
making good bread–and making a strong follower of jesus, is a process. you don't make sourdough or strong christians in a day. don't get mad at the people you're pouring into if you don't see immediate results.
we're not very good at waiting, but we should be. isaiah 40:31 is the best reminder i know about waiting:
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
just in case you need it, you have permission to wait on the LORD. if you're feeding yourself or someone else, it's okay if something is not happening immediately. wait.
when was the last time you had a day off? i'm not talking about a day off from work. i'm talking about an honest-to-goodness day when you had not work, a day when you abandoned house chores, when you didn't check work emails, when you didn't take a work call, didn't add anything to your work calendar or when you didn't write a to-do list. when was the last time you took a day to simply rest?
i confess, it's been a while since i had a day like that, but i've become increasingly aware that i- and my fellow christians - have made a grievous error.
y'all, waiting is a commandment!
look at the fourth commandment in exodus 20:8-11:
remember the sabbath day by keeping it holy. six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your GOD. on it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. therefore, the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
can anybody out there explain how the church became so much more concerned about the fifth-10th commandments, and not so much about the first four?
we get bent all out of shape and angry when we see people not honoring their parents, committing murder, committing adultery, stealing, lying or coveting, but we hardly pay any attention when somebody doesn't take a day off.
something is wrong with our thinking.
mark 2:27 says:
the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath. therefore the son of man is also lord of the sabbath.
and look at leviticus 23:3
six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. you shall do no work on it; it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings…
we are commanded by GOD to observe the sabbath, to take a day off. GOD himself rested on the seventh day. remember also that our GOD is omnipotent. he didn't need to rest. his very nature is creating things, so it's not like he ran out o ideas or got tired. he rested for us. he saw that what he had created was good. it was enough, so he rested.
if GOD built in rest and waiting. we should do the same. we need to give ourselves permission to take time to grow, to spend time drinking in and meditating on what we've already been fed with.
take a day off.
lesson 4: beautiful bread requires hard work, a hot oven and a sharp razor
you know all t hose beautiful designs on sourdough loaves? those are made by taking a perfectly smooth mound of dough, chilling it, and then slicing it with a very sharp razor blade. you can absolutely bake sourdough without cutting it, but for something truly beautiful, you have to apply the razor.
and, finally, cooking the perfect loaf requires a hot oven. the dough has to feel the heat.
the bible tells us that pain is part of the process for JESUS-followers:
james 1:2-4:
count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
romans 5:3-5:
but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. now hope does not disappoint, because the love of GOD has been poured out in our hearts by the HOLY SPIRIG who was given to us.
I peter 4:12-14:
beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of CHRIST'S sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. if you are reproached for the name of CHRIST, blessed are you, for the spirit of glory and of GOD rests upon you. on their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified.
do you know the magic of what happens when scored sourdough is baked? as it is heated, it expands. as it expands, those scored places grow, creating intricate designs, that, when done, reveal the beautiful bread on the inside.
we would all prefer a care-free life, but there's not beauty or growth in that. if you're feeling the heat. if it feels like you've been cut, that is GOD at work. the outcome will be something that is not only beautiful to look at, but also tasteful and shareable.
one more thing
a loaf of bread doesn't do anybody any good until it's broken or sliced open. we don't like to be broken. we don't like to be cut or exposed, but that is where the goodness is. that is where the true beauty, the aroma is. that is where the nutrition is.
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