What do bread and lifting weights have in common? Believe it or not, time.
Let me explain.
I used to make bread dough in a bread machine and then bake it in the oven. This resulted in a pretty impressive loaf but without the arm workout. Over the course of the first provincial lockdowns, like everyone else and their brother, I began making bread completely by hand. In learning to make the dough with my own hands, it struck me how much resting time is built right into the recipe. In the book I was using to develop my bread baking skills (Bread Baking for Beginners), the author, Bonnie Ohara, reminded me that baking bread can’t be rushed because it takes time for the ingredients to work together to create the magic treasure of bread. In other words, time is an ingredient.
This got me thinking back to my powerlifting days. All good powerlifting programs require, definitively, this one thing, that if left out, it doesn’t matter how much volume or sets or reps you do, because you won’t see significant growth: rest days. You have to give your muscles time to heal before you can work them again. …In other words, time is part of the program.
I think the Lord uses time as an ingredient in His recipes and programs. Moses spent forty years in the wilderness before meeting God at the burning bush. Joseph suffered cruelly for thirteen years as a slave before being raised up as second-in-command. Sarah was 99 when she finally became pregnant with Isaac. Israel wandered in the desert for forty years before entering the land of Canaan. Saul was thirteen years in Arabia after his conversion, before coming back to begin his missionary work in the known world. It seems to me that God never works at the pace we expect Him to.
But here is the thing that bread-baking and weight lifting taught me about it: the delight is better after the wait because of the wait.
The bread I made using the bread machine was fine. But it wasn’t amazing. …The bread made by hand and with time as an ingredient was waaaay better. My workouts were always better after a good rest because the muscles were ready to get back to it.
Truthfully, time can be a killer because waiting is hard. But in time, in the waiting, God does beautiful work. Just like it takes time for the ingredients to work their magic to produce soft, fluffy bread, and just like it takes time for muscles to repair, God uses time to to do a work in our hearts: to expose our own heart and idols.
In the waiting, what I actually want becomes apparent. In the waiting, what is true about my heart always rises to the surface and forces me to deal with it. In the waiting, I struggle and work through things I thought were unrelated–and clearly are not–and I find a new perspective from it.
But most significantly, God uses time to show me that I am a terrible wait-er. There is nothing like being forced to wait that shows you just how impatient you really are! And yet, in this there is great mercy. Because by showing me I am terribly impatient, God shows me, again, my great need for Him. Waiting shows me I need Jesus.
Perhaps, like me, you’ve found yourself doing a lot of waiting these days. Waiting in line to get into the grocery store. Waiting for Zoom call recordings for students to convert. Waiting for your Amazon “Two-Day Prime” order to arrive eight days later. Waiting for change on the current restrictions. Waiting for something to give so we can go back to normal. Only Jesus knows how long this wait will be, and only Jesus knows how poor we really are at waiting. But in this, we can rejoice because it is in our waiting we are made more like Him as our true natures are exposed, we see just how much we need Him, and we are reminded just how much He delights to be all we need!
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
What you’ll find here is a collection of musings, thoughts, writings, and ramblings about things I’m reading, watching, and thinking about. It’s my goal to inspire, encourage, and instruct my fellow sisters in their walk with Jesus and their understanding of the Word.
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- A Taste You Can Feel In Your Cheeks - September 29, 2021
