So What is All of This “Breaking Bread” Business?
It would be hard to release an album titled, “Breaking Bread: Songs of Reconciliation,” if I didn’t talk about the one who really inspired it all: Christ. Over the last 10 years since becoming a Christian, I’ve looked to Christ’s example plenty of times. One thing that He did really well was understand people’s current state and reach them at their level; He was void of pride. We know this as empathy, and He was the master at being empathetic.
When I’ve thought about breaking bread, it’s usually with the image of the Last Supper. Christ came to the table to eat with folks that were mentees, doubters, and traitors. He knew that there would be deceit and rejection but nevertheless, He ate with them. Christ understood their struggles and why one of them would betray Him, and yet, He did not turn on them. His humility is something that I wish we could all model because it’s such a beautiful reckoning—the idea that while I don’t agree with what you are doing, I understand why you are going to do it. Through His actions, He was saying, “I see you.”
The etymology of the word reconciliation means “to bring back together,” “make friends again,” “make good again,” or “repair.” Breaking bread with folks that would ultimately hurt him, Christ knew that it is something we are called to do. If we are going to be in a relationship with anyone, especially ourselves, we must know that we will inevitably hurt each other. But it’s how we resolve the conflicts that count. Through the Last Supper, Christ demonstrated to each of the disciples how to peacefully resolve conflict; not with anger or violence, but by breaking bread and talking things out. By being real with one another with the aim of true healing.
Often Christians use the word atonement when they talk about Christ dying on the cross for our sins and thereby making a right relationship with God. The etymology of the word atonement is “atonement,” meaning “set at one” or “to reconcile.” Christ broke bread when He died for us on the cross to bring us into unity and wholeness with God again. I often feel like that is what we are doing when we reconcile the parts and pieces of ourselves that have been broken. In a way, we have to give up parts of ourselves, casting out pride, anger, self-righteousness, ego, malice, and sin to have peace and harmony. We have to let go of these emotions to feel whole again. In order to patch up those wounds and heal, we need to let go of anything that keeps the wound open.
When I came up with the title of the album, “Breaking Bread: Songs of Reconciliation,” I wasn’t intentionally choosing a title that would encapsulate what I was trying to convey through songs; rather the album title chose me and the songs for it. Like the lyrics to “Nashville,” the album title miraculously popped into my head. I have to believe that this was God’s way of guiding my creation before I could really grasp it. I never considered “breaking bread” as a tie to “reconciliation,” “atonement,” or any other Biblical references. It just happened, but I know it happened for a reason.
If you think about it, breaking bread is the perfect analogy for what we are trying to resolve: brokenness. We are trying to make relationships whole again. That is why I chose a heart-shaped piece of bread for the cover of my album. A heart being pulled apart is painful and hard. In those moments of undoing, I felt that God was breaking my heart for what breaks His—to see humanity suffer because we carry around this pain, shame, guilt, and condemnation. Working through the pain helped me better understand others, as well as God’s pain. He would like nothing more for us to resolve it all and move on to become a better, whole, and complete people.
We can’t forget about the bread itself, as it’s nourishment for the soul. There is something filling and calming about bread. It also takes time and patience to make. I once read a really wonderful excerpt from the book, “When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life’s Sacred Questions” by Sue Monk Kidd. She writes,
To create newness you have to cover the soul and let grace rise. You must come to the place where there’s nothing to do but brood, as God brooded over the deep, and pray and be still and trust that the holiness that ferments the galaxies is working in you too. Only wait.
And somehow the transformation you knew would never come, that impossible plumping of fresh life and revelation, does come. It manifests itself in unseen slowness. So it would happen to me and so it will happen to all who set out to knead their pain and wounds, their hopes and hungers, into bread. Waiting is the yeasting of the human soul.
Making bread is not a quick endeavor and often takes hours (even days) to rise. That is analogous to the length of time that it takes to heal wounds and reconcile those broken parts in us; it takes a while. Pain does not easily let up and it can take a while to resolve conflict and heal. But once the process starts and the dough begins to rise, there is not much that can be done to stop it. Once you start down the path of healing and start to see progress, you inevitably are compelled to see it all the way through. I sometimes wish that bread making was a much less time-intensive process and that you could have that wonderful, flakey loaf sooner. But alas, some acts in this life take time, and there is always a good reason for it—there is a lot of work to be done underneath the surface. We have to trust in the slow work of God and realize that once you move past all that pain, you are left with something beautiful. Not only for you but for others too.
Now that you know just a little bit more about the inspiration and direction for “Breaking Bread: Songs of Reconciliation,” I pray that you will come, sit, and have a meal with yourself, your friend, and your community, and start that process of self-discovery and healing. I hope that by breaking bread with yourself and those in your life, your soul will be nourished and that you can pass the bread around so others can nourish theirs, too. When we feed the souls of others, our souls will be fed.
“Breaking Bread: Songs of Reconciliation” is out July 15. Pre-save it on Spotify or pre-add it on Apple Music today.