I have very rarely had a bad performance due to being unprepared. I have, however, flubbed quite a few due to over-preparation. I have been known to work myself into a frenzy, playing the same difficult passage over and over and over again until I have effectively unlearned it.
Such is my personality. I can fixate on something to the point of forgetting it—you know, like when you repeat a word so many times it ceases to look like a real word. I remember, as a child, losing my ability to hold a fork because I thought about it too hard.
I was reflecting on this tendency today, Holy Saturday 2026. Liturgically, today ought to be a day of quiet, a hallowed space between the crucifixion and resurrection. I like to imagine this day as a dissonant chord, echoing through an empty sanctuary as it yearns toward resolution.
But for those of us in ministry (and, perhaps, especially music ministry), this day more often tends to be one of sound than silence and movement more than meditation. Year after year, I’ve spent this day practicing—and mildly panicking.
But this year, I refuse to over-practice. (Realistically, with a seven-week-old baby, I just don’t have the time.)
I write in Spirit-Filled Singing about how the fruit of faithfulness calls us to the utmost reliability. Faithful worship musicians, whether volunteers or vocational leaders, can be counted upon to prepare diligently. But faithfulness does not just require trustworthiness; it is rooted in trustfulness. It invites to set aside our labor and to rest. It invites us to rely on others. It beckons us to fall back on belief, trusting not in our works but in the Lord who sustains us by his grace.
Even as we sing of Sabbath rest, we can so easily spend our Saturdays and Sundays running ourselves ragged, feverishly trying to ensure everything goes smoothly. But I urge you to relax your burdened shoulders and release that breath you’ve been holding since Lent began. Tomorrow’s worship services will be far more enjoyable for everyone—yourself included—if you embrace faithfulness not only in trustworthy preparation but trusting in Providence.
Besides, if there’s one thing I learned from my years as a piano performance major, it’s that if you are not ready by the day before a recital, you’re not going to be ready, period. So if you’ve been faithful in your rehearsing, now is the time to be faithful in your resting.
Ryanne Molinari 