Lavish Gift of Sabbath

Singer-songwriter Caroline Cobb can’t get enough of a good story. She’ll happily stay up late poring over a fascinating novel, no matter how many times she’s read it before. But the most important story she knows—and the one she never grows tired of telling—is God’s story found in his Word. And several of her albums are dedicated to telling it, focusing on various parts of Scripture.

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Right now, I am growing in my appreciation of prayer and taking a weekly sabbath.

In the past when I’ve sat down to pray, I wasn’t always sure what to say. Back during the shutdown of 2020, I was feeling especially aimless and angsty. I began studying the Psalms and praying them back to God. The Psalms gave me words and helped me aim them at a real God. Many of the songs on the Psalms record came out of that season. Praying God’s words back to him—beginning with a Scripture, then speaking to God in light of that Scripture—has been a life-giving practice for me. I’m also comforted by the fact that the Holy Spirit is interceding for me, translating my silence, groans, and even misguided prayers to God, and aligning them with his will. This gives me such freedom in prayer and makes it more of a delight than a duty.

I have a strange personality in that I love achieving and meeting a goal, but I also need a ton of margin to process my emotions, create new things, and engage deeply with God and his world. Sometimes, my achiever side can run me ragged, and I hit a wall. And yet taking a real rest just does not come naturally. The rhythm of a weekly sabbath forces me to stop and remember I am not God.

Of course, I would never declare aloud “Guess what, guys? I’m God!” But sometimes, if I’m honest, I function as if I were. Sabbath is a lavish gift from our Maker. Each week, he invites me to remember: I do not keep the world spinning. It’s not all on my shoulders.

“All the work is done/ It is finished. / No, you’re not enough but / It is finished” (from the song “Find Rest”).

—Caroline Cobb, singer-songwriter whose latest album is “Psalms: The Poetry of Prayer,” as told to Rapt Interviews