Give Us This Day . . . Sweet Sourdough Lessons

I know I told some of you that I wouldn't tell you what I ate for dinner, so I won't.  But I am going to risk telling you, just this once, what I had for breakfast.

I've been making bread in a bread machine with commercial yeast for nearly twenty years.  It's a pretty foolproof process.  If you measure right, it always works, and in 190 minutes you can have fresh bread.  Once in while, we supplement with purchased bread. We've never been in want for bread; there's always been an abundance.

So whenever I read the example prayer that Jesus gave to us,

". . . Give us this day our daily bread. . . ,"

I always was thankful for our abundance of bread, but I don't think I ever understood the kind of dependence He meant for us to have.

. . . That is until sourdough.  Two years ago, a friend of ours who grew up in France explained how to make sourdough bread.  He even gave me some starter, so I could start right away.  It, too, seemed a fairly foolproof process, though a little more time intensive.  It was wonderful, and my family soon preferred it to our other home-made bread.

Unfortunately, and, viewed in retrospect, probably Providentially, my starter went bad and I had to start over.  I didn't want to impose on our friend for more starter; so I determined to start my own.

And I began to understand what it could mean to depend on the LORD for bread.

To start a sourdough starter, you mix equal amounts of water and flour and wait.  The next day, you discard half, add back more flour and water, and wait again.  And so it goes on for days and days.  There are a few other technical details, but that's essentially it.  How the culture actually grows is totally out of my control.

It's not a quick process, nor is the outcome guaranteed.  A lot depends on weather, specifically temperature.  The first organisms to grow in the culture are nasty; but their growth provides the pH the desired "natural" yeast organisms need.  A couple times, my culture got moldy before the right organisms were growing in it.  So again I had to start over.  And wait again.

And in the waiting process, I found myself praying for daily bread like never before.  When it was easy to buy or make bread, and when there was always an abundance, yes, I was thankful, but I overlooked the reality of my complete dependence on Him as Supplier.  It wasn't until I had no bread and was waiting on Him to make the sourdough process work that the Lord opened my eyes to more fully appreciate how helpless I am on my own for even the simplest of things.  I suspect that the one who waits for rain to grow the grain to grind for flour to start the sourdough leavening culture understands it even more fully.

I'm ashamed that I've taken so much for granted, carrying on as though my expertise accomplishes things.  Thank you, Lord Jesus, for including the call to acknowlege our utter dependence on Your precious Father and mine.

Yes, I had sourdough toast with an egg for breakfast.  And each morning that I am granted the privilege of enjoying sourdough, I am reminded that I depend on Him to give my daily bread—and so much more.