The Christian music group MercyMe on Thursday explained to a national ABC television audience the true faith-filled story behind their new hit song Say I Won’t.
The tune, which currently ranks No. 7 on Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs chart, was inspired by their friend Gary Miracle, who went into septic shock in December 2019 and nearly died. He survived, but doctors had to amputate all four limbs.
Miracle, though, didn’t give up, and he learned to walk again, with prosthetics, in recent weeks.
The band, along with Miracle, was featured on a special segment of Good Morning America’s GMA3 show.
“I don’t know if I would have the same outlook on life if that had happened to me, so watching him go through what he’s gone … is incredibly encouraging,” said Mercy Me guitarist Barry Graul.
Bart Millard, the lead singer of Mercy Me, added that Miracle’s “attitude towards it is amazing, and his outlook is … unbelievable.”
The music video features images of Miracle’s life, both before and after the amputation.
Miracle told GMA3 his Christian faith was essential to his positive outlook.
“The Lord gives, and He takes away,” Miracle said. “And He took away my hands and feet, but the rest of that verse [Job 1:21] says, ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord.’ So that’s just the path that I’ve chosen to go down for now.”
Asked how he avoids anger and despair, Miracle told GMA3, “The thing that I keep coming back to is, I realize that in this life we all have struggles. Right now in my life, my struggles just happen to be a little bit more visible than somebody else’s.”
Miracle has maintained his sense of humor, too, Millard said.
“He’s like, ‘Man, I’m the same guy. I’m just 40 pounds lighter,'” Millard said, laughing.
Miracle said he’s “forever grateful” to Mercy Me for giving him a platform to discuss triumph during adversity.
“To me, this is a blip in my story,” Miracle said. “I’m alive, and God is good, and I’m very thankful and blessed to be here and still married to my wife and still the father to my kids.”
The song is part of Mercy Me’s new album, “inhale (exhale),” which will be released on April 30.
Photo courtesy: ©MercyMe, screenshot
Video courtesy: MercyMe
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
