I realized last week how often I use the excuse of "I'm too busy" to avoid doing things I just don't want to do. Fasting is meant to strip away the tasks that we use to fill our time and excuse ourselves from the things we don't want to do. But Isaiah 58 tells us that if our fasting doesn't then lead us to see and address the needs of the oppressed around us, then we are doing it seriously wrong.
Read MoreGuest writer Lyndsey Medford shares her difficulty accepting the problems of an ingredient that holds so much cultural identity. But in learning to bake as a spiritual discipline, she is learning to accept her interdependence with something as minute as a microorganism. Cultivating humility and patience, sourdough teaches the qualities Jesus possessed in his very bones.
Read MoreI love being in control. I love precision and formula. I love knowing that if I mix together specific ingredients in a specific way I will get the result I desire. But unlike the rest of baking, bread is more art than science. It requires the baker to read and to listen, to react according to the dough's needs. Ironically, it is the tactile practice of making bread that I turn to when life feels out of control. Perhaps because it is the very form through which I've learned to release control.
Read MoreWhat do Jesus' parables on yeast have to do with our starter and with our spiritual lives? Before we can put our sourdough starter to use, we must learn how to care for it so that it remains strong and healthy. Similarly, the spiritual disciplines foster a healthy environment for us individually and in community.
Read MoreOn Ash Wednesday, we reflect on the brokenness of the world and our own finite selves. But death, and with it a return to the soil, is only the first step in resurrection. So today we also mix the dry dust of flour with water in order to bring it back to life as a sourdough starter.
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