The Spiritual Lesson Hidden in My Sourdough Starter

During some unexpected downtime in my schedule recently, I decided to learn how to bake sourdough bread.

If you know anything about sourdough, you know the first step is creating a starter—a living culture of flour and water that ferments and acts as the natural leavening agent for the bread. It’s what gives sourdough its rise and its characteristic tangy flavor.

You can buy a starter, but where’s the fun in that? I wanted the full experience, so I decided to grow my own.

The process sounded simple enough. Combine flour and water, keep the mixture warm, and feed it daily. After about seven days, the instructions said, the starter should be bubbling and doubling in size—ready to bake with.

So every day I followed the instructions. I discarded half the mixture and added fresh flour and water.

For the first few days… nothing happened. The mixture looked exactly the same as the day before.

Then around day four, it suddenly sprang to life—bubbles everywhere and the mixture expanding just like the instructions said it would.

“Yes!” I thought. “I’m in business.”

But after a few promising days, the bubbling stopped. Completely.

After some investigating, I realized I had added a little too much water during one feeding and stalled the fermentation process.

So I corrected the ratio and continued feeding it each day, expecting the growth to return.

But day after day went by… and nothing happened.

I was frustrated. I was doing exactly what the instructions said, yet it didn’t seem to be working.

I was tempted to throw the whole thing out.

But instead, I decided to keep going.

And a few days later, the starter came back to life.

As I reflected on that experience, it reminded me of some recent conversations—okay, more like gripe sessions—I’d been having with God.

My husband and I were preparing to move to a different state. At first everything seemed to be unfolding according to plan… my plan.

But a few weeks in, the setbacks began.

Our plan to move into a rental fell through.

Several snowstorms caused delays.

We discovered a crack in our foundation that needed to be repaired before we could sell the house.

I started feeling anxious and frustrated. I was convinced that God was leading this move, so why were all these obstacles showing up?

Had I done something wrong? 

Had I misunderstood His direction?

Why wasn't this happening faster?

That’s when God gently pointed out something to me.

My impatience with the move looked a lot like my impatience with the sourdough starter.

Nothing was wrong with the goal. Nothing had gone off course. It was simply taking longer than I expected.

And throwing the whole plan away out of frustration wouldn’t get me where God was leading me.

So the real question became this:

How could I walk through these setbacks without letting anxiety and frustration take over?

I decided to look more deeply at the questions I had been asking myself to see whether they might give me some insights into the roots of my anxiety and frustration.

Had I done something wrong?

That question revealed more than I expected. By asking it, I was implying that God’s favor over the move somehow depended on my performance.

But Scripture never suggests that God’s plans hinge on perfect execution. In fact, it says the opposite:

“He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” — Philippians 1:6 NIV

God finishes what He starts. My job is not to perform perfectly, but to trust the One who is carrying the work forward.

Had I misunderstood God’s direction?

As I sat with that question, I noticed another subtle lie creeping into my thinking.

At some level, I was assuming that the outcome depended on how clearly I understood the vision, the plan, or the execution.

But God’s Word reminds me otherwise:

“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” — Proverbs 16:9

God’s plans aren’t fragile. My imperfect understanding—or imperfect execution—does not derail what He has determined to accomplish.

Why wasn’t this happening faster?

This one was easier to diagnose: impatience.

If I’m honest, there have been plenty of times in the past when impatience led me to take matters into my own hands—and those decisions usually set me back rather than moving me forward.

When I stepped back and looked at our situation differently, I realized something humbling: God already knows the buyer for our current home and the exact location of our next one. Because He is God, there is no force in heaven or on earth that can prevent His plan from unfolding.

What I was interpreting as delay might actually be His provision.

Perhaps the buyer for our home hasn’t started looking yet. Perhaps the house we’re meant to purchase hasn’t come on the market.

The very thing I was experiencing as frustration could actually be evidence of God’s care.

I was reminded of these words:

“Be patient, then, brothers and sisters… See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm…” — James 5:7–8 NIV

Sometimes what feels like a setback is simply the quiet, unseen work of God preparing what comes next.

As I thought about all of this, I couldn’t help but laugh at the similarity to my sourdough starter.

For days it had looked like nothing was happening.

Then it bubbled.

Then it stalled.

Then—after what felt like far too long—it suddenly came back to life.

The truth is, fermentation was happening the whole time, even when I couldn’t see it.

The same is often true in the seasons when God is leading us somewhere new.

Progress isn’t always visible.

Delays don’t necessarily mean something is wrong.

Sometimes God is simply doing quiet work beneath the surface—aligning circumstances, preparing hearts, and positioning the next step.

Our role is not to force the timing, but to keep trusting the process and the One who is guiding it.

🧭 COMPASS CHECK

Where am I assuming that setbacks mean something has gone wrong—or that I have done something wrong?

📍TRAIL MARKER

God is always working even when I can't see it.

👣 FAITHFUL STEP

Replace an anxious question (“Did I do something wrong?”) with a trust-filled one (“What might God be developing here?”).

If you’re in a season where progress feels slow or uncertain, coaching can provide space to pause, listen for God’s voice, and process what He may be doing beneath the surface.

Sometimes a conversation is all it takes to move from frustration and confusion to clarity and forward motion. Let's talk.

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