Lessons from Making Bread

by Phoebe

Ever since Jon got a bread machine for my birthday last June, I got started on my breadmaking journey. From making loaves entirely from the bread machine to shaping my own loaves, I am now experimenting with sourdough baking. I never imagined myself to be so fascinated by breadmaking – I began to see beauty in baked crusts and find myself drawn to the airpockets in every sliced loaf. I also never thought that I will be so disciplined to practise and modify bread recipes.

Breadmaking has taught me two lessons:

Breadmaking nurtures patience. I have learnt how impatient I can be, especially when overnight fermentation of bread dough is required. The longest baking time I took thus far was an exhausting 18 hours! Sometimes I cannot wait and end up putting the dough to bake prematurely. No surprise when the bread turns out too dense and chewy! It reminds me of how bad I am at waiting, compared to our God who waited for generations and generations of the Israelites to come to repentance.

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, … to the third and fourth generation.” Exodus 34:6-7

God’s patience stretches to generations! He Himself declares that His love covers generations, even when the Israelites lost faith and made a golden calf while waiting for Moses to come down from Mount Sinai. God still gave them a second chance by giving them new tablets of the Ten Commandments and eventually promised and sent His Son as a Saviour to all. For us, life’s tasks at hand may require urgency and forces us to race against time and lose faith. However, may we be reminded to slow down and appreciate the blessing of waiting. Beautiful things, like beautiful loaves, may come out as a result.

Breadmaking also taught me to trust that transformation takes place even when I do not see it. In sourdough baking, even though the dough expands overtime, we are unable to tell what goes on inside the dough. Are there sufficient airpockets formed? Are the airpockets going to be too big when the baking process starts? Is the bread going to be too sticky? In the same way, change is sometimes not as fast and conspicuous as we expect based on human standards. It is perhaps inner and gradual transformation that we should be looking out for. Sometimes God very slowly shapes our character over time, that we do not even notice until we are reminded by Him or when someone points it out to us. In ministry, we hope that whatever we sow will reap quick results, but have there been times when you wonder whether the effort you put in has had any impact? There are times when God does not allow us to see the transformation, but it does not mean that He is not working. Do not lose heart and keep pressing on in His will. I pray that one day He will allow you to look back and see that your sowing has brought about positive change.