The right 'yeast' and a lot of waiting

I confess, ‘fresh anything from a bakery’ is a major weakness of mine. It is hard for me to go past a bakery and not wander in and buy fresh sourdough bread, hot pies, vanilla slices, blueberry and white chocolate scone, cheese and bacon twists…it is hard to stop. My mouth is watering just writing about it.

But my deep respect for this food has skyrocketed in the past month as I decided to try to make my own sourdough bread from scratch. It literally took three weeks to finally make one loaf, and it is yet to be perfected, if that is ever possible. I was always confused when I saw the labels saying, ‘72 hour sourdough’, and wondered how it could take so long to cook ? For those who have been making their own bread, you know what I am talking about. The process I have learnt over the past few weeks is an ongoing and growing art and it takes so much time.

When beginning from scratch, just to get the starter to become live was so hard. It took me nearly three weeks. Mum was laughing at me, because at Hopes View we are always daily feeding birds, chickens, dogs and plants, now I am feeding dough! Yes, you have to feed it every day. Who knew? Once it was live and growing, then came the actual bread making, which also takes time x’s time. There is the mixing, the waiting, the kneading, the waiting, the folding, the waiting, the stretching, the waiting, the fermentation, the waiting and waiting and did I mention the waiting!

Three days later you finally get to bake the bread. And it is worth the wait. But, of course, the bread doesn’t last long, so before you know it you are beginning the process again. All the while you are feeding your active starter and accumulating so much discard that you have to make so many other things you could have never imagined. In the past week I have made (for the first time ever I might add) sourdough crumpets, flatbread, pizza sourdough bases, sourdough scones, sourdough banana bread, blueberry sourdough muffins and sourdough chocolate cookies and even my own granola. And for Easter I am making my own sourdough hot cross buns. So, I am now my own ‘bakery’ and it is definitely going to be a problem with my waistline as I can’t say no when it is sitting there on the counter to be eaten.

Oh, how I have loved the cathartic process of ‘hands on the dough’, the necessity of slowing down and the creative process of considering all the new things that can be made and tasted.

But on another level, it did make me stop and consider how much this rhythm of bread making is like the rhythm of life with God. As you begin life with God at the centre (as from scratch) just getting started is a whole new way of life; new disciplines, new language, new practices, regular feeding and learning. That first step is so important, that first love you have to keep feeding. How quickly can your starter go mouldy, cloudy, even die if it is not fed and cared for daily, just like our faith. It is not the starter (yeast) that is the problem, it is our lack of leaning in and doing our part of keep it alive. Like the starter, God is always there waiting for us to come to Him and learn from Him that we might be best fed to rise and be something beautiful.

An alive and healthy starter

Then with a ‘healthy starter’, each day is a new opportunity to make something new and interesting, especially if we are willing to give it time. It takes time to make something beautiful, to see something rise. And the options are endless. Matthew 13:33 told another story.

“God’s kingdom is like yeast that a woman works into the dough for dozens of loaves of barley bread—and waits while the dough rises.”

The dozens of options are a privilege with God, but it also comes with waiting and being still, it comes with the hands-on connection with the Father, the kneading and shaping and stretching. It slows you down and teaches you “delayed gratification”, something we all need in this instantaneous world. Such satisfaction when after 3 days of work, steaming hot bread comes out of the oven and you know you have been a part of the process, but you know it would not have risen without the powerful agent of yeast.

The yeast is a powerful thing, that can be used for good or for not so good as Galatians 5:7-9 says

“You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of obedience? This detour doesn’t come from the One who called you into the race in the first place. And please don’t toss this off as insignificant. It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread. Deep down, the Master has given me confidence that you will not defect”

We are warned that a little yeast that is not of Him, can also send us to a very different place. We all know how easy it is to get distracted, to forget, to let other things turn our heads, our hearts, our minds. So, the power of feeding this “sourdough” starter every day, has given me renewed zest to feed my soul, my heart and my mind every day in Him.

As John 15: 4-5 says

“Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me”.

The choice is to practice the discipline of waiting; to linger, to remain, await, stay, to be joined. To be still, to expect and anticipate that in the waiting, especially in the waiting, God is doing his best work in us. The right ‘yeast’ and a lot of waiting is a great formula for getting the best out of life. I wonder do you have the right yeast and can you wait in Him to see what can be created over time in your life?