I started my sourdough starter back in January, and I’ve learned so much about this beautiful baking tool. It’s definitely an extensive process, but it’s well worth it! Several weeks ago as I was preparing a bread dough, I felt like God dropped this super unique metaphor in my heart that uses the sourdough process to explain His refinement and sanctification process for His children. Follow along to learn more about my take on sourdough & Jesus!

Creating an Active Starter: Being Reborn

In order to be reborn in Christ, you must believe that He came, died for your sins, and rose again. Additionally, you must decide to lean into your faith by starting to follow Him.

In much the same way, starting your sourdough starter is a similar process. You first come to see it as a great thing to do for yourself and your family. But then, in order to actually do it, you must mix that flour and water to create something new.

A new sourdough starter is much like a new believer in Christ: so much potential, yet not quite active or fragrant.

Discard & Feed: Less Me, More Jesus

If you know anything about how to maintain a sourdough starter, then you already know that you must discard at least half of it and feed it more flour and water every so often in order to keep it healthy and active. If you don’t feed it, it will eventually smell terrible and produce mold.

After feeding a sourdough starter, it grows and often doubles within hours. Similarly, after we read the Bible and spend time with the Lord, He makes us grow in Him.

This process almost directly mirrors how the Holy Spirit works within each believer. He removes the gross, over-fermented parts of us and replaces it with fresh, daily bread that helps us grow to become more like Jesus. If we don’t get fed directly from the Word of God, our spiritual health declines and we may quickly become an inactive believer.

Mixing Dough: God in Our Works

The next step in the sourdough process is mixing the dough. In the most simple recipes, you need only starter, flour, water, and salt. It may not seem like much, but these simple ingredients yield the best bread there is.

The most important ingredient here is your leaven—the sourdough starter. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to make amazing bread. I suppose you could try to make dough with only flour, water, and salt, but you would be left with a dense dough ball that won’t rise.

However, when you thoroughly mix all of your ingredients together, the starter works throughout the entire dough to make it active and help it rise.

In this metaphor, God is the starter. We may bring flour, water, and salt to the table, but our good works and living a good life only get us a dense dough ball without putting God at the center. But, when we do put God at the center of our life and works, like the starter, He infiltrates every facet of our life (the dough) and helps us rise.

Without your starter, you can’t make tasty bread. Without God as the leaven of your life, you’ll be stuck as a dense dough ball going nowhere fast.

Stretch & Folds: Pain in Refinement

After mixing your dough, the next step is what’s known as stretch and folds. Basically, for the first 2-3 hours after mixing your dough, you have to stretch the dough and fold it back over on itself every 30 minutes, letting it rest in between. This process helps to strength the gluten structures, creating a strong, bouncy dough. After each set of S&Fs, you’ll notice that your dough gets more and more sturdy.

In a very similar way, when you allow God access to all parts of your life, He will put you through stretch and folds. This process is known as refinement. He will stretch you more than you ever thought possible, shaping you into the person He needs you to be for His Kingdom.

It looks different for each person. For some, this may be removing people from your life. For others, it could be cleaning up your behavior or your language. For all, it includes teaching us how to trust Him and going through trials that make us stronger. He gives us rest from our trials and hard things, and just when we think it’s over, He comes to stretch us again in yet another way to help us grow.

God’s refinement process isn’t without pain. It can be very hard and painful for many of us; however, it’s also very necessary for our personal and spiritual growth as we step deeper into our identity as a child of God.

Just as stretching and folding your dough strengthens the gluten structures, God’s S&F refinement process strengthens us as believers.

Bulk Fermentation: Waiting Seasons

Now we get to the fun part: waiting. This is the step that makes sourdough so much different from normal bread-making. With commercial yeast, it doesn’t take too long for dough to rise. However, when you’re working with wild, homegrown-in-a-jar yeast, it can take much longer.

Enter bulk fermentation. This is the period after stretch and folds when we just have to wait for our dough to double before shaping and baking. It can take up to 24 hours, depending on various factors.

When you just want bread, this is a long time to wait. Thankfully, this wait is so incredibly worth it when you get to taste the freshly-baked bread of your labor.

Bulk fermentation is much like the waiting seasons God often keeps us in. There are often so many factors that play into God’s timing that we have no clue when our blessings will be ready or when we’ll be ready to receive them.

It’s so hard to wait so long when you want something so badly. But every single time, the wait is so worth it when you see God’s timing play out perfectly, and you get to taste the blessing you’ve been waiting and praying for.

I know this may have been a corny metaphor for some or a no-brainer one for others, but I couldn’t help but be amazed at the seemingly-mundane things or processes God can use to teach us about Himself. I’ve always thought that sourdough baking was a beautiful process, but now? Now, it will forever make me think about all of the beautifully intricate ways that the Almighty God works in me and my life every single day.