Dianne Neal Matthews here, hoping to share some encouraging words with you on this second Monday of June. When I recently attended a symphony rehearsal, I enjoyed the music—but I also came away with inspiration to apply to the writing life.

My best friend and her husband are members of an all-volunteer symphony; my husband and I try to catch every performance (although he doesn’t share my enthusiasm). During the last concert, I sat there soaking up the beauty of the music as usual, letting the melody wash away my stress and tension. As I looked at the large group on the stage, I thought about how the individual notes of each instrument blended together to make a glorious sound.

Each musician was doing their part, whether playing riffs on a small flute, belting out the notes on a huge tuba, gliding a bow over a violin, or occasionally banging cymbals together. Even the guy rubbing a stick over what looked like a tiny wooden barrel was necessary. The result of their combined efforts filled the auditorium and pierced the hearts of the listeners.

As Christian writers, each one of us is doing our own part, whether writing novels, nonfiction books, magazine or newspaper articles, poetry, pieces for websites, or blog posts. But we’re all working together to bring glory to God by spreading His truth whether we use words to comfort, encourage, inform, or entertain.

I’ve heard my friend speak about the most accomplished musicians being assigned “first violin” or “first flute”. Sometimes it seems like bestselling writers have been assigned the role of “first author”. Maybe we feel like we’re sitting on the back row and are invisible, but our individual contribution plays a crucial role in this symphony of words that goes out to the world, sometimes piercing hearts with the beauty of God’s truth.

Isn’t CAN like a symphony that performs for God? Regardless of our specific gifts or our level of experience and success, we can all make beautiful music together. Even if nothing much seems to be happening in our writing career at the moment, our responsibility is to keep practicing. We want to make sure our instruments are finely tuned and ready to follow our Conductor’s leading whenever He picks up the baton.