Independent singer/songwriter and worship leader Natalie Villa released Symphony in June. The EP contains a mix of worship and upbeat pop songs, including "Running" and the title track. A theme that Natalie weaves throughout her album is about remembering our identity, who we are in Christ.

Many years ago I saw the movie Mr. Holland's Opus starring Richard Dreyfuss. Growing up playing alto saxophone in concert band and marching band, I could really relate to the way it was depicted in the movie that as a team we can all become something bigger than ourselves. That's truly the call of each of us as believers. Villa says the name Symphony represents God's role in the life of the believer. I had the chance to speak with Natalie about "Symphony."

Please tell me the personal story behind this song.

In 2008, my husband and I moved from Las Vegas to the inner city of Nashville to work as missionaries. We helped run a creative arts discipleship program and worked as on campus pastors at the church. It was a really special program. We challenged the students to work on their heart before their art, and it daily challenged me in the same way as a pastor and as an artist. 

One night I was leading worship, and I started spontaneously singing "I want to be Your symphony, a beautiful melody" over and over, and I ended up singing the entire chorus of this song that night. That night was really special, and even though I don't play piano that well I was leading worship from the piano. Everything was out of my comfort zone, leading worship, living in a new city, and it was my cry of surrender to the Lord to make my life His song and His masterpiece, to give my life to Him. "Take everything in me and make it Yours:" that phrase and this song became an anthem for me personally. I didn't intend to make it a song, it was just something we sang in worship, and I couldn't get the melody out of my head so we finished writing the song. It has been marinating in me. I may not understand everything going on in my life, but I choose to trust God and His plans and surrender my life to Him.

Which Bible verses connect to the message of the song?

Psalm 9:10 (NKJV): "And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You."

Psalm 16:2 (NKJV): "O my soul, you have said to the Lord, 'You are my Lord, My goodness is nothing apart from You."

Psalm 18:2 (NKJV): "The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold."

Psalm 91:2 (NKJV): "I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust."

Psalm 139:15-17 (VOICE): "You see all things; nothing about me was hidden from You
As I took shape in secret, carefully crafted in the heart of the earth before I was born from its womb. You see all things; You saw me growing, changing in my mother's womb; Every detail of my life was already written in Your book; You established the length of my life before I ever tasted the sweetness of it. Your thoughts and plans are treasures to me, O God! I cherish each and every one of them! How grand in scope! How many in number!"

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV): "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight."

Philippians 1:6 (NKJV): "being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."

John 15:4-5 (VOICE): "Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. A branch cannot bear fruit if it is disconnected from the vine, and neither will you if you are not connected to Me. I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you abide in Me and I in you, you will bear great fruit. Without Me, you will accomplish nothing."

John 17:21 (VOICE): "Father, may they all be one as You are in Me and I am in You; may they be in Us, for by this unity the world will believe that You sent Me."

Romans 8:28 (VOICE): "We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan."

Ephesians 2:10 (NLT): "For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago."

What is the takeaway message?

Sometimes the best songs come out of a place of worship. When we are focused on Him and worshiping Him, He pulls thoughts out of us. Just like the orchestra follows the conductor, we must watch and follow the Great Conductor of our lives. God wants to orchestrate our lives to be a beautiful masterpiece, a symphony. When people think of a symphony, most times they think of an orchestra, but a symphony is an elaborate musical composition written by a composer. To create a beautiful composition, it takes a conductor and an orchestra with various instruments because they create together a beautiful sound. 

There are two parallel messages in the song. One is personal. Sometimes we can feel broken and out of tune and lost, and we need to trust the Lord to orchestrate the details of our lives. Just like there are various instruments in an orchestra, sometimes we feel like there are various things going on in our lives. We might feel like the different things are conflicting and not matching. We need the Lord to orchestrate the details of our lives. The underlying message of the song is trust. The Lord is good at conducting our lives, if we will let Him. Just like the orchestra needs to watch the conductor, we need to watch and follow our conductor, Jesus. He knows what the symphony is supposed to sound like, and He knows how to make the song if we watch Him and trust Him. He knows how to play the strings of our hearts so all of the details come together and make a beautiful sound. 

The other message of the song is that as the body of Christ we can be compared to an orchestra. The Church is beautiful and there are so many different parts, and what makes us so special is how our differences come together in Jesus. He is our conductor, and He is the groom and we are His bride. There's all these moving parts, and if they aren't all following the one conductor they may not sound good, but when they all follow the conductor they make a beautiful sound. We are made of many parts. We have a mandate to make a beautiful sound by following Jesus when we are all on one page, in one accord and in unity. When we celebrate our differences as a church, we will make an impact that is so loud and it will be the Lord's symphony. I hope this song becomes an anthem for the Church.

Lyrics:
I come before You
Tired and broken
I don't know if I can hold that note
I need direction
I need perfection
But everything just feels so out of tune
I'll trust in You, 'cause You're the great conductor
Orchestrate my life once again

I want to be Your symphony, a beautiful melody
I want to be Your symphony, I give You all of me
I want to be Your symphony, a holy harmony
I want to be Your symphony, I give You all of me

It's overwhelming, this world around me
When it doesn't seem to work the way it should
So here I am waiting, anticipating
'Cause only You can make it all okay
I'll trust in You, cause You're the great conductor
Orchestrate my life once again

Come and play the strings of my heart
'Til my life becomes Your perfect art
Come and play the strings of my heart
Lord, 'til my life becomes Your perfect art

One of the reasons I feel so strongly about featuring female artists making faith-based music, like Natalie, is that they are representing a desire for holiness and purity to my 3 daughters, which is so important. God's love is a pure and unconditional love that the world doesn't know unless you have tasted and seen the goodness and purity of Jesus and His love for us. Commit to holiness and purity in your life, trust in Jesus, and this song can be your anthem. 

As followers of Jesus, we know that we can trust God's Word. We are all a work in progress. Have faith and let God "work all things together for good." Spend time with God, and let Him redeem and restore you. We are not at the end of our story. God's still writing our stories of redemption. God wants us to know that He's faithful to complete what's He's started in all of us who've put all of our hope and trust in Jesus for our salvation. 

Over the years, I've struggled with perfectionism and people pleasing. This song really opens up my eyes to the truth that those feelings are actually selfish and not God-honoring. Looking out for the needs of others is what matters the most in God's Kingdom. This song is about realizing that if your eyes are open to the needs of others around you, and if you serve others and care about people more than think about your selfishness and doubts, then you can have the unity that God desires for His sons and daughters in the body of Christ and live out the symphony that God is conducting in our lives when we serve others together and follow and trust Him.

"Symphony" is such a great song and anthem of praise. Many of my favorite songs are based on the themes of joy and trusting in God from the Psalms and Proverbs. So many people struggle to apply God's Word to their lives. If we learn to build our lives on Scripture, we would all have a Rock as our foundation in how we navigate our lives.

The Good News of the Gospel which this song perfectly portrays is that God accepts us no matter what we've done or what we are going through. Although many of us may know Proverbs 3:5-6, Solomon wrote that to us to remind us today about the importance of trusting in God with ALL our hearts. As the song sings, "I want to be Your symphony, a beautiful melody. I want to be Your symphony, I give You all of me." Amen to that!

Listen to the song below.