Leaven

My routines have been altered, eliminated really.  For many years, every five minutes of my work day was scheduled and my time allotted to a certain task. On weekends when I was not at work, I resisted a schedule, having no schedule was a routine that allowed me to rest from a hectic week.

I am on week two of no work, no normal routine. I am not just waiting for snow and ice to melt off the roads so I can go back to work.  (Snow and ice did not stop me from going to work anyway...)

Since this altered reality has set in, I decided to learn the art of bread making with sour dough. It has been another experience in waiting.  I’ve baked sour dough bread from starter before, but always with a cheating element. Yeast.  When this prolonged stay at home began, it disturbed me that I could not easily buy just anything I wanted.  There was no un-bleached flour, and no yeast.

I began to grow my own starter as soon as an internet search turned up the flour I needed.

The waiting began.

Flour and water that sat overnight began to produce bubbles. For several days, I fed this jar of goo.

Today, I decided it was ready for making bread. For the past 18 hours, I have been in this process. One tablespoon of this goo I have been pampering for over a week became the leaven for two loaves of bread in the oven at this moment. (I have decided that I started on the wrong end of the day, I should have started this at night....they are baking at 1:00 in the morning!)


Scripture speaks a lot about leaven as an example of what happens when sin is introduced into our lives.  One small tablespoon of my homemade leaven became the leaven that would  alter a whole bowl full of dough.

When I looked into scripture about it, I was a bit taken aback by what I found on my very first search.

"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough."  (The words of Jesus as recorded in Matthew  13:33 NIV) 

Yes, sin is like yeast, it is dangerous to allow it into our lives because it can permeate every facet.  

But Jesus said that His kingdom is like yeast. 

So much of what I thought about all these days of dealing with this leavening was the negative teaching in scripture about yeast.  

“Don’t let sin get a hold, don’t accept an area of shortcoming, don’t, don’t, dont....”

It’s exhausting...and impossible in our own power.

Jesus says that His kingdom has that same ability, the power to come in small and change the entirety.  

The enemy would have us think only of the negatives and the “don’t” list.  And certainly we should be aware and on guard for the leaven of sin!  But focusing only on our eliminating sin ends up as behavior modification and will always be insufficient and usually short lived.  

The influence of Jesus can take over our hearts and lives, and in so doing, expel and change all that we might so futilely attempt on our own. 

“Watch the first speck of sin; cherish each grain of holy impulse.” F.B. Meyer 

My bread has baked. It is 2:45 in the morning.  

Thank You Lord for using this whole bread making thing to teach, admonish, and encourage.  I purpose to feed only the leaven of Your Truth, relying on You to guide me as I make it my purpose to act on that Truth in all things.