Thank You, Lord - Gary Mabry

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)


What’s your favorite holiday? Lot’s of people say Christmas, because of the gift-giving, or maybe because of the spirit it engenders. Others pick Halloween, especially if they like handing out candy to kids standing at the door in adorable costumes. Maybe it’s one of the patriotic days, and the holiday from work that you really relish. I know I like holidays because it’s then that I get to do what I like – sleep in a little and skip the traffic! How would it work, though, if you were ordered to take a holiday to do something you don’t really like to do, or told to do something you’re not good at? Consider Ebenezer Scrooge, that thankless Christmas-time curmudgeon who was finally compelled to be kind. We think of him usually just in December, but maybe his story would also fit well at Thanksgiving, whaddya think? The ultimate complainer converted at Thanksgiving…yeh, that would be poetic justice, right?  I have to admit, I have lots of reasons to be happy and grateful, but too often I’m forgetful about expressing my thanks sincerely…I’m Scrooge. If that’s you too, Gary Mabry has written us a song to remind us of gratitude, to draw this emotion out of us. He also shares how he came to compose this tune, and how God uses unlikely people to teach us profound truth.

Gary Mabry spent his high school and college-age years in Abilene, Texas, where he met Stanley Shipp, a Christian missionary who became a link to Gary and the song “Thank You, Lord”, though probably neither of them suspected how this would come about in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After his conversion to Christ, Mabry continued to grow in the Lord’s work at his local church in Abilene, becoming a song leader and then youth director through Stanley Shipp’s encouragement. Although Shipp moved to St. Louis to start a campus ministry, he and Mabry kept in touch. Gary sometimes was the song leader during National Youth Outreach Campaigns that Shipp organized, and on one trek to St. Louis Mabry began to write “Thank You, Lord”. In Mabry’s own words …” One of the men from Abilene who moved to St. Louis to work with Stanley Shipp was a cerebral palsy victim (although he never considered himself to be a “victim”) by the name of Robert Reid. … I drove Robert from Abilene to St. Louis as he relocated. He was such a positive, fun and funny person….His spirit gave new meaning to thankfulness to God. …I began to have an idea for a song and jotted down the words and melody on a pad I kept close by. Robert was the first person to hear it…” If he didn’t know it before, perhaps Mabry had discovered something about how God translates a song to a composer. Could it be that the Creator places special people – like Robert Reid - in one’s way to spur and craft something unique, something extraordinary and long-lasting?

God is bountiful. However, sometimes, given my circumstances, I could easily curse and wonder ‘where’s God’s blessings in my life?’Robert Reid could have brought gloom, but instead he brought cheer to others – was that providential? Mabry’s first verse in the song tells me to thank God for “making me whole”. It must have been something to hear Robert sing those words, and know he counted on God to make them true. Mabry’s song and its story remind me that our Father’s “whole” gift comes in heaven, and in an unexpected way here on earth too. I need to find people who have little, seemingly, but who still manage to smile. They have what I often lack, although to the secular world the opposite appears true. “Thank You, Lord” communicates something elemental about my God and me. If I dwell on the essentials – Godly love, His blessings, and the full life He promises here and in Eternity – I have all I need. My frown turns upside down, I cast off Scrooge, as I think upon the song’s message, and let its music indwell me. Thank the Lord for Gary Mabry, for Robert Reid and Stanley Shipp, and the musical Spirit that collaborated on this song!

The above story was acquired via an e:mail with Gary Mabry on 3/31/2009, and through his association with the University of Texas at San Antonio gary.mabry@utsa.edu.