New Every Morning

When I told a friend this summer that I was going to start blogging, he was gracious enough to tell me that he would read it, as long as I didn't become "one of those annoying bloggers who just write about what they had for breakfast and stuff like that." While I fully appreciate his standard of quality for online writing, sometimes you just have a really good breakfast. And so it is at the risk of estranging a devoted reader that I write to you about my foray into the world of artisan bread.

Over Thanksgiving, my sister introduced me to a simple bread recipe, and I was excited to discover that the dough keeps for up to two weeks, allowing for delicious fresh bread on demand. Thus the breakfast in question happened as follows: get up at 7:00, set out dough. Go for a 20 minute run while bread rises and oven preheats. Bake bread in oven for 30 minutes while showering and getting dressed. Allow bread to cool while brewing coffee (freshly ground, in a french press), cooking eggs, and preparing Greek yogurt. Slice bread and spread generously with butter and jam to taste. Enjoy.

There is something somehow right about baking bread fresh. The biblical metaphors are of course replete: give us this day our daily bread, the ravens that brought Elijah bread twice a day, the manna that comes sufficient for the day. There is a picture of perfect provision, but also of perfect timing. Bread without preservatives must be baked fresh; neither can we reheat yesterday's manna. How often we enter the day strong in the strength the Lord provided yesterday, that we have begun to think of as our own. But if even our righteousness is tainted by pride and our repentance by pretense, we are much in need of new mercies daily.