For God Alone: Thank You, Lord

The first solo I sang in public worship was How Great Thou Art. One day, when I was around seven years old, my sister, Debbie, and I were sitting at the piano in our home in Columbia, Missouri; Debbie was playing and I was singing. Our Dad, who was about halfway through his master’s degree at Mizzou, walked through the room and asked if I would sing How Great Thou Art in worship the following Sunday. During his graduate studies, Dad held down five different jobs to support his family of seven (almost eight); one of those ‘jobs’ (though I very rarely refer to vocational ministry as a ‘job’) was pastoring a small country church outside of Centralia, Missouri, New Hope Baptist Church. So, the following Sunday, I stood up before a crowd of people and sang a solo in public for the first time. 

The next solo I recall singing before a gathered assembly was when I was nine or ten, and it was the theme song from the musical, The Sound of Music. The Magyar family was living in San Jose, Costa Rica where Dad and Mom were in Language School for a year before we moved to Cali, Colombia where they would ultimately serve as SBC missionaries for thirty-five years. (All praise and glory to God alone!) Our school, Country Day School, had a Talent Show, and I auditioned and was selected to sing ... “The hills are alive with the sound of music! With songs they have sung for a thousand years!”

Then, a song I learned and sang during my teen years was composed by Nashville artist, Dan Burgess, titled Thank You, Lord. This song of testimony was published in 1972, and was later included in a work he called The Apostle, a musical drama based on the life of Paul. Dan’s scriptural inspiration for Thank You, Lord was Romans 5:3-5, and, somehow, that chapter of Paul’s epistle to the church in Rome resonated with my teenage heart. 

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5) 

In 1975, my oldest sister, Debbie, two other MK’s from Cali, Colombia, Roger and Roxanna Orr, and I were asked to sing for the National WMU Convention in Ridgecrest. The four of us had formed a quartet, and Bob Oldenburg (who wrote and compiled the musical, Good News) had heard us, and thought we would be a good feature for that summer’s convention in Ridgecrest, North Carolina. So, we prepared several songs - and one of them was Dan Burgess’s Thank You, Lord, which I sang as a solo. 

Thank You, Lord, for the trials that come my way, in that way I can grow each day as I let You lead. And, thank You, Lord, for the patience those trials bring, in that process of growing I can learn to care. 

But it goes against the way I am to put my human nature down, and let the Spirit take control of all I do. For when those trials come, my human nature shouts the thing to do, and God’s soft prompting can be easily ignored. 

And, I thank You, Lord, with each trial I feel inside, that You’re there to help lead and guide me away from wrong. For You promised, Lord, that with every testing, that Your way of escaping is easier to bear.

But it goes against the way I am to put my human nature down, and let the Spirit take control of all I do. For when those trials come, my human nature shouts the thing to do, and God’s soft prompting can be easily ignored. 

I thank You, Lord, for the victory that growing brings, in surrender of everything life is so worthwhile! And, I thank You, Lord, that when everything’s put in place, out in front I can see Your face, and it’s there You belong.

Now, here is the ‘testimony’ part of this entry: Since learning Dan’s song, Thank You, Lord around age fourteen or fifteen, I have faced more trials than I could ever have imagined some forty-five years ago. While I have not felt the physical pain of literal rods on my back as was the case with the Apostle Paul, I have felt the pain of figurative beatings time and again. And, I have discovered and felt the pain of loneliness, and of physical, relational, and material loss - and betrayal. I have hurt deeply over words spoken - from the lips of others, and, yes, from my own as well. 

Thankfully, not only has God not abandoned me, the Spirit of God has taught me so much of Himself and of His divine purpose in this world for me and for others. And, for His great faithfulness, I praise and thank Him. 

So, today ... Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14) 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28) 

Thank You, Lord (Dan Burgess) - Cynthia Clawson, voice, Brian Mann, piano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=006BUpPwNIQ

You Are There (Dan Burgess) - Cynthia Clawson, voice, Brian Mann, piano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq1wtLJcHBw

© Paul R. Magyar, DMA, 2020