Caroline Cobb

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.

So what drives Caroline’s fascination with musical storytelling? How does she deal with the struggles that threaten to derail her work-rest balance? And what upcoming passion projects are stirring in her heart? We’re asking all this and more in today’s interview.

QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT

There’s much more to food than palate and preference. How does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind the web bio?

My husband Nick and I have moved around quite a bit — college in Austin, corporate jobs in Dallas and a year doing missions in China. Then we went to Boston for seminary (for him), spent a few years in his hometown of Tyler, Texas, moved to the Bay Area in California and then finally landed back in Dallas. Yes, it was a lot of places. Yes, we loved all the adventure and the people we were in community with. And yes, it felt exhausting by the end.

Still, I wouldn’t change a thing. We felt called to each of those places, and God taught me deep things. And we especially value the relationships we gained along the way. But after that last move, we were done. We desired permanence and long-term community. We wanted to be rooted in one place and with one people for as long as possible, even when things got messy or tiresome.

We’ve been rooted in Dallas for about seven years now, but eating out is one way I still get a little adventure. I especially love finding great Asian food as it reminds me of our year in China, and it’s so hard to replicate at home. Over the last few years, I’ve cashed in on Mother’s Day and my birthday as a chance to get our three kids to eat adventurously with Nick and me. Turns out, all three now love dumplings from Jeng Chi and a bowl of ramen from Wabi House! These two meals are our new DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) go-tos, although my favorite restaurant is still just any highly rated Asian place I’ve yet to try.

books and a camera on a shelf — Chris Bair; Unsplash

QUESTION #2: REVEAL

We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests. So what are yours? What so-called “nonspiritual” activities do you love and help you find spiritual renewal?

My heart comes alive when it’s immersed in a good story.

My favorites come in the form of young adult fiction — “Harry Potter,” “The Lord of the Rings,” “The Wingfeather Saga” by Andrew Peterson or “The Chronicles of Narnia” — but I also love the fiction of Wendell Berry and Marilyn Robinson. Once I find a good story, I’ll read it again and again, making sure to space it out every few years so it feels new. Every night, I take up a story and read it until I fall asleep.

Some see reading stories as an escape, but I believe the best stories are doing unseen work in the deepest places. C.S. Lewis said a good story can “sneak past watchful dragons” — all those defenses we default to when truth comes at us straight away. When we immerse ourselves in a book or even in a song, we are learning about the reality of things through our imaginations.

For example, “Wingfeather” has taught me much about shame and identity. And when my dad died in 2021, I felt like Harry seeing the Thestral for the first time. I read J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Return of the King” during Advent this year, and it reminded me of all those passages in Isaiah promising flourishing gardens in wasteland places. Jesus comes in the weakness of a hobbit to bring the radiant light of Lothlorien to the gloom of Mordor.

When I talk about my music, I say it is all about “telling the story.” The story I’m referring to is God’s big story in Scripture — this deep well from which we’ll never stop drawing up new beauty, new truth and new light and from which I can’t help but keep on writing new songs. My hope is that these songs will help us rehearse and see God’s story, not as propositional truth coming at us like data points but as narrative awakening our imaginations, doing deep work in the listener in the same way “Wingfeather” or “The Lord of the Rings” has worked in me.

QUESTION #3: CONFESS

Every superhero has a weakness. Every human, too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re broken and in this thing together. So what’s your kryptonite and how do you hide it?

I don’t know about you, but I often have standards in my head of what it might mean to be good enough. A good enough friend, student, employee, wife, Christian.

Growing up, I did okay trying to be “good enough” in all my roles and relationships. But as I got older, it got harder and harder to meet the standard and make the grade.

The real kicker for me came when I became a mom, especially once I had three kids under 5. Sin patterns emerged: a new anger, an out-of-nowhere temper, and a desire to accomplish and win approval by doing it all perfectly right.

In his kindness, God met me in this season of falling and failing. It was as if he took my face in his hands and lifted my chin and said, “Caroline, you don’t graduate from the gospel or outgrow it. This is why I came. I have met every standard and given you a gift you can’t earn or deserve.”

Out of that season, I wrote “There Is a Mountain” (about the upside-down economy of grace) and “The Wonder” (about motherhood). Trying to be “good enough” is still my kryptonite, the yoke I go back to because it makes sense when we look at the world around us. It’s hard to get grace into my gut. I don’t really hide this weakness that much anymore, honestly, although I have to fight it off with every concert, album, difficult parenting moment and more. I really do savor the good news of Jesus — this news we never outgrow or graduate from.

QUESTION #4: FIRE UP

Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your obsession? And why should it be ours?

I love telling God’s story, especially through music.

About a year before I turned 30, I gave myself a goal to write a song for every book of the Bible. I already loved God’s Word and I already loved writing songs, and the marriage of these two passions made sense. Plus, it was so fun to write this way! Turns out, that crazy goal set a new trajectory for my music and work.

I’ve released four storytelling albums already (“The Blood + the Breath;” “A Home & a Hunger;” “A Seed, a Sunrise;” and “A King & His Kindness”). The fifth album in this anthology of storytelling work will be out this May, and it’s called “Psalms: Poetry of Prayer.”

This album came out of my own devotional time in the shutdown of 2020 when I didn’t know what to pray. I hope it gives voice to the rich range we see in the Psalms: lament, thanksgiving, joy, confession, trust and more.

Maybe you already noticed, but I make sure the titles of each of the storytelling albums I release are alliterations. I write other music, too, but the alliteration belongs to the storytelling work. It’s a bit nerdy, I know.

My hope with every song, album and concert is that you would be able to rehearse and remember the good news, immersing yourself in the greatest story ever told.

QUESTION #5: BOOST

Cashiers, CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, we all need grace flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it’s God when it happens?

Music and creative work can quickly become exhausting when we are living out of the wrong metaphor.

In 2021, I felt worn down, angsty and lonely, and I even grew a bit cynical about my music work. I was super productive, playing a ton of shows, and I still loved writing music. But I was weary. I wrote these lyrics down: “I feel like I’m pushing a boulder uphill / I keep sweating and striving and I can’t be still/ sometimes I look up and wonder why / why am I pushing this boulder? Why does it even matter?” My friends listened to all my angst one night and advised me to take a sabbatical.

During my sabbatical, I realized I wasn’t living in the right metaphor. God’s kingdom economy allows me to trade the image of pushing a boulder uphill — emphasizing productivity and efficiency but never getting to the top, hustling and striving, wondering if it matters — for one of farming.

A farmer cultivates the little plot of land she’s been given, not looking to the right or left. She works hard but holds things loosely as she depends on the sun and the rain for the yield. And by some miracle, the seeds sprout even — or especially? — when she stops to rest. The resulting harvest outlasts her, still growing and nourishing others as it reverberates long after she’s gone.

The truth about God’s kingdom and the gospel frees me to rest when the world values productivity, to know I’m already beloved when the world values performance, to know it all matters even when the seed takes root slowly.

I have tended to write and create from this mindset and feel in step with the Spirit. But sometimes, I get off on the backside of the process — the promoting, the admin of booking shows, the social media, the comparing and the “manager” stuff. The Spirit reminds my spirit that I am already a beloved child of God, so my work can be a worshipful response rather than a performance (see Romans 8:16). Scripture says I am a jar of clay holding a bright treasure, so I don’t need to impress you, just steward this story of good news (see 2 Corinthians 4:7-9). With God, I can trade “pushing” for prayer, striving for faithfulness and productivity for the fruitfulness that comes from abiding in Christ (see John 15:1-17).

QUESTION #6: inspire

Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied actions that open our hearts to the presence of God. So spill it, which spiritual practice is workin’ best for you right now?

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 (see Romans 8:26-27). 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”).

QUESTION #7: FOCUS

Our email subscribers get free ebooks featuring our favorite resources — lots of things that have truly impacted our faith lives. But you know about some really great stuff, too. What are some resources that have impacted you?

I would say Andrew Peterson and Sandra McCracken have discipled me over the years through their music, writing and sacramental way of living.

Andrew is especially good at telling a story with his words, and unveiling the beauty of Scripture.

My favorite Andrew Peterson songs might be “The Sower’s Song,” “Don’t You Want to Thank Someone?” or “Be Kind to Yourself.”

Sandra, on the other hand, is especially good at writing songs that feel like prayers. I love “Sweet Comfort” and “Send Out Your Light (Psalm 43).”

The latter has been a prayer for me in several seasons when I longed for God to bring light and truth to a hard situation.

As I’ve listened to their music, read their work and even been around them a bit, I’ve also gotten a sense that they live sacramentally with eyes wide open, attuned to God’s presence and the transcendent quality of daily life. Most of us are too hurried and harried to see it.

There have been several nonfiction books along the way that have greatly impacted me, too. A.W. Tozer’s “Knowledge of the Holy,” all of Eugene Peterson’s work, Tim Keller’s work, “Gentle and Lowly” by Dane Ortlund and Hannah Anderson’s “Humble Roots” all stand out. “Knowledge of the Holy” met me in a season of deep doubt. Intellectually, I was struggling with the problem of evil and the fact that I knew and loved so many non-Christians. Tozer lifted God high, and his prose was almost poetic. I was humbled by the beauty and majesty of God through his words.

We all have things we cling to to survive (or thrive) in tough times. Name one resource you’ve found indispensable in this current season — and tell us what it’s done for you.

My word for this year is “consistency.” “A Rule of Life” has helped me remember to make consistent deposits in the things that matter most, such as pursuing certain relationships, the weekly practice of sabbath and examen, daily reading and praying Scripture, reserving specific days for deep and creative work, and more.

But even as I recommend a Rule of Life, I have a warning for all the achievers like me out there: Don’t jumble the ends and the means. Being with God and keeping in step with his Spirit are the goal. Spiritual disciplines are simply the means to get to God. We get into trouble when we make “A Rule of Life” into a way to self-actualization (“craft your best self”) or a productivity (“get more done”) paradigm.

QUESTION #8: dream

God is continually stirring new things in each of us. So give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?

I feel like I’m entering a new season of music and ministry right now, and it’s exciting. The angst I felt before taking the sabbatical in early 2022 still rears its head sometimes, but I feel more centered and clear about how to battle it.

I also feel less alone. I started a Patreon, my church is supporting me this year as a missionary of sorts, I finally had margin to join a monthly songwriter group through Art House Dallas and I’m learning to integrate my community and family better into my work.

Right now, I’m focused on releasing a Psalms album in May of 2023. But, I’m always full of ideas, especially around creating more storytelling resources.

I’m writing an Advent devotional that might just get published, I have some congregational worship songs in the works, and I have ideas for collaborative projects, curated playlists, co-writing, Bible reading plans that incorporate music and more. I’ve also been writing a lot of personal songs about the death of my dad, the clinical anxiety my friend is walking through and more. And I’m praying about releasing those as an EP.

My hope in all of these things is this: “I am just a jar of clay, with cracks and broken pieces / But I’ve got a treasure stored away, and it shines right through my weakness / I’m not that skilled, I’m not that cool and I don’t play that well / But I have got some real good news, and a story I must tell” (lyrics from “Tell That Story”).

Storytelling has long been a powerful way to craft songs. (Just ask David, Asaph, the sons of Korah and other writers of the Psalms.) Within well-told stories — especially the accounts in God’s Word — we can find truth, life-changing lessons and comfort.

Why is this so important? Psalm 78 says, “We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done … Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands” (Psalm 78:4b, 7, NIV).

And although not all of us are gifted with Caroline Cobb’s songwriting talents, we can still tell stories that point others to Jesus. So how can you proclaim God’s wonders through storytelling today?