One Pen, One Guitar, & One Voice

A few months ago, I started learning to write songs. At first, I thought I needed to learn the keyboard—so I bought one. Ironically, I had just given away a keyboard and guitar I’d been lugging around for twenty years. But the artist in me had caught the songwriting bug again, so here I was with yet another instrument.

I’ve always written lyrics and sung melodies, but I had never taken the time to actually have the music scored. This time, I was determined to do it. Yet, just as it happened twenty years ago, I realized I didn’t have the discipline to learn an instrument on my own.

Here’s what I discovered instead: I love collaborating with my songwriting coach. She encouraged me to focus on writing lyrics and singing melodies while she scored the music. So far, it’s working beautifully. I’ve written five sets of lyrics and melodies, and we are almost done scoring the first song. For that song, I found myself drawn to the simplicity of the guitar.

This experience reminded me that sometimes less is more. I didn’t need a new keyboard or another instrument. What I needed was to lean into my strength—writing—and trust the gifts of others where I am not as strong.

The song itself is about hearing the voice of God. In my process, the one pen and one guitar became symbols of the One Voice that matters most—the voice of God, who speaks through and beyond our artmaking.

As a contemplative, I am always listening for that Voice—the One who keeps me on the ancient path. As a writer, I am always straining to hear what “thus says the Lord.”

In short…

I am called to write.
To sit with mystery.
To call out to eternity.
To help pen breathe words,
ancient and new.

And you—where are you called to hear and echo the voice of God?

Are you called to the arts—or to something else?
Doctor. Lawyer. Parent. Grandparent. Teacher. Sister. Friend. Auntie. The list is endless.

Here’s the truth: God can speak to and through even the most ordinary places. God speaks all the time. We just need to tune our guitars and steady our pens to hear the One Voice—the Voice that has spoken across eternity, the Voice of love that endures through the ages.