Breadzilla ... Sinzilla

Last summer my daughter baked bread to earn money for camp. She made dozens of homemade hamburger and hotdog buns and mastered beautiful discs of rosemary foccacia bread. With the help of a breadmaker, mixing up the dough was usually easy ... we are still required to measure the right amount of ingredients. Only once or twice did I see her face melt like a wax candle when she opened the lid to discover that, instead of an elastic ball of dough, she had "bread soup." It made for a few laughs, some quick re-mixing, and several excellent cooking lessons. The hardest part of all in baking bread ... getting the yeast right.

Yeast is the difference between a cracker & a croissant, a chip & a ciabatta, a biscuit & a bagel! There needs to be the right amount at the right temperature. I've had my own yeast incidents, and I know the disappointment of finding "bread soup" or "breadzilla." Breadzilla is when there was either too much yeast, too much time, or just too much heat. It looks like a Jiffy Pop in a 1970's popcorn commercial or a beehive hairdo in a 1960's Better Homes & Gardens. You get the idea. :) The amazing thing about yeast ... yeast grows! It only takes a little to change a whole lump.

Scripture uses this same picture to help us understand how just a little false teaching, a little sin, can spoil a walk with God. In fact, the writer of Galatians asks, "You were running well; who hindered you from obeying truth?" (5:7)

Just "A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough," Galatians 5:9.

Last week, I discovered that Kool-Aid is a cousin to this whole leaven idea. Jacob and I were making Kool-Aid, and we were experimenting with sugar measurements ... why read the directions? :) I stared at the sugar in the pitcher and started to feel guilty, so I scooped some back out, careful not to get any of the strawberry, and put it ... back in the sugar canister. It was barely, barely visible, so I was sure it would be harmless. Until I went to make apple crisp a couple days later. The trace amount of Kool-Aid had infected all of the sugar, turning more of it pink and leaving "lumps" in the bottom of my store. Contaminated.

God's idea for our lives is that we would not be contaminated, not allow in any of sin's leaven into our hearts and minds, so that it doesn't spoil the whole heart and produce "Sinzilla."

Psalm 24

³Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place?
⁴He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood
and has not sworn deceitfully.
⁵He shall receive a blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

My mom and dad came to visit last week and brought a "new" ($3 at a garage sale ... go Nana and Papa!) breadmaker for JoHanna, so I think many more rolls are in her future. She will learn to master the yeast so that Bread Soup and Breadzilla will just be lessons from loaves of the past.

Lord, help me to be on the alert for the yeast around me, so that You can work out a pure heart and clean hands in my life. I want the blessing that brings, so that I can come near to You. Show me where there's sin mixing into my life and cleanse me to be useful for You.