It’s been around 50 years now, since that holiness camp meeting in East Texas, when a preacher named Bill Mathis was visiting with the other pastors before the service. He saw one of his fellow minister friends and inquired as to how things were going. The other preacher despairingly said, "Brother Bill, it's been tough, I think I'm just going to quit!" Bill questioned back, "Why, what has God done to you now?"  The other preacher looked at him in shock and exclaimed, "Why Brother Bill, God hasn't done anything, he's been nothing but good to me!"  To which Bill said with a big grin, "Then why do you wanna quit on Him for?".

Bill Mathis was my grandfather, a devout preacher and church planter in East Texas and Western Louisiana for 43 years and growing up, I've heard my dad share that story with congregations from Texas to North Carolina many times during his own days of preaching and singing. That story made a big impression on me and in a writing session about 9 years ago with a fantastic songwriter, Rebecca Peck, I shared the story about my grandfather as we were bouncing song ideas around and the hook, "Nothin' But Good" was coined and the song was written!

The inspiration for the song occurred 5 decades ago, the song was written almost 10 years ago, it was put on hold a few times but not recorded and even recorded a few times by other artists but never singled to radio. Now, what might have been thought of as a passing moment of encouragement between two preachers 50 years ago is still making the same point today over the airwaves as The Crist Family sing, "There have been many times, I've wanted to give in, just toss in the towel, throw my hands up and quit, though life had been hard, through it all I can see, God's been nothin but good, good, good, good to me..."

This is one of the reasons I love  Gospel Music, from personal tragedy to triumph or deep discouragement to high hopes, the inspiration derived from real life usually finds its way from a person’s pen to paper, from paper through the voices of a few, and from those voices of a few into the hearts of many.

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Title: “Nothin’ But Good”

Artist: The Crist Family

Writers: Rebecca Peck, John Mathis Jr.

Publishers: Centergy Music/BMI, Thomas Peck Music/BMI

Top 20 -  Singing News Southern Gospel Chart