“I never could have tried to get it to where it was… God took that song places that I couldn’t have imagined.”
— Aaron Shust

Twenty years ago, a young worship leader from Pennsylvania penned a melody on a church piano and scribbled lyrics on a yellow Wendy’s napkin. He had no record deal, no grand plan—just a red Sharpie, a Bible, and a lyric that wrecked him.

That song was “My Savior My God,” and the artist was Aaron Shust.

In the two decades since, Aaron has become a beloved figure in the world of worship music—known not just for his songs, but for his depth, humility, and unwavering heart for Scripture. As CCM Magazine celebrates 20 years of Aaron’s ministry, we’re revisiting the song that started it all—with Aaron himself walking us through its remarkable origin.

“I came across the lyrics of an old hymn that I had never heard growing up in the church,” Aaron recalled.

“I thought I’d just experienced all the hymns that there were to experience.”

The opening line stopped him in his tracks:

“I am not skilled to understand what God has willed, what God has planned.”

“It blew my mind,” he said. “I’m just sitting in my cinderblock office in the basement of this church going, looking. Does anybody see this? Doesn’t like this? What are these words?”

That raw honesty gave Aaron permission to breathe.

“It just gave me such freedom to say I don’t have to understand the mysteries of God, to trust him.”

He sat down at the piano, wanting the song to be simple enough for anyone to grasp immediately.

“My goal was to make this so accessible, so simple, so dumb that we could, like, get it on the first try.”

After trying the song in church for more than a year, something still felt incomplete—until one night at a red light outside the church.

“I’m thinking, man, I wish there were something that we could sing that just kind of lifted it… I just want to say that: ‘My Savior…’ I think I said ‘lives’ first. ‘My Savior lives, my Savior loves…’ …my God he was, my God he is.’”

And with a smile, he added:

“I thought, oh wait a minute. If I took ‘lives and loves’ and switched it to ‘loves and lives,’ it would rhyme with ‘was and is.’”

With no notebook in reach, he reached for what he had:

“I had a red Sharpie and a yellow Wendy’s napkin in the passenger seat. I just scribbled it out and the light turned green, and I went home and started working.”

He brought the new version to church. Then to youth groups. Then to worship conferences. Then after a simple basement studio recording the song found its way to radio and far beyond what Aaron ever expected.

“I never could have tried to get it to where it was. I had to be faithful to the sphere of influence that I had right around me, which was my church and my people.”

What’s perhaps most meaningful to Aaron now—twenty years on—is hearing how the song has impacted others.

“I hear stories of people who have gone through hard things—sickness, loss—and somehow that song gave them peace or reminded them that it was okay to not have all the answers. I don’t take that lightly. I never will.”

He reflects on one particular line that seems to resonate across generations:

“I know it’s been freeing for other people to hear those first words out of the gate: ‘I’m not skilled to understand God’s ways.’ Like, oh, okay, how freeing. I don’t understand His ways. And that’s frustrated me. But now to hear someone say that— that’s freeing.”

That freedom, that honesty, has become a trademark of Aaron Shust’s music ever since.

Watch Aaron Shust tell the story and hear exclusive version of “My Savior My God” on our YouTube Channel.

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