For the past 5000 years, cooks and bakers have in the earlier hours of the day, crafted the bread for the day.  They have taken flour and water and brought forth bread.  My flour sits in an airtight container inside a lovely wood cabinet.  I purchase it from the air-conditioned mega food shop.  A few generations before, my foremothers would have ground the grain into a soft flour carefully grinding only what they needed for the day’s baking. 

There is a rhythm to making bread, a rhythm that is not ever to be forced.  Good bread bakers will say, watch the dough not the clock.  I would add to these sage words, feel the dough and notice what it needs – even if the recipe says otherwise.  Flour and water are products of their environment.  If the flour is holding a bit more moisture, less water may be required.  When the flour is dry, as it can be on a Pennsylvania winter day, more water maybe needed.  

In our spiritual lives, we may need to feel the activity of God more than the recipe of God.  How God moves in your life will be different than how God moves in mine.  Same goal – transformation.  But we too are invited to watch the dough, feel the dough, and not the clock nor just the recipe.  Jesus says it so well in Matthew 11:30 (The Message), “Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

 If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your heart.