His Eye is on the Sparrow...

You've got to love lessons in faith. And by "got to love" I really mean...grrrr! My life has been full of things I am forced to trust God with lately.

Something you must know about me is that I like to have everything under control: my school work, my love life (or lack there of), my career, my family, my meals, my steering wheel, my make up (seriously, I hate having others do my make up, because I know exactly how I want it)...you get the picture.

Here's what is going on...
1) My dad has been out of a job since December. He is so smart, and wonderful and would be a great asset to any company, but it is one of those things where nothing has come through the way it ought. You know how you get to a certain point in something where it's out of your hands and you just need to trust God with it. Well, that's how it has been with this job search. We cannot doubt that it's in God's timing, but we're just so frustrated that his timing is so much longer than ours. Grrr.

2) Much less significant: I have been working on a group project for my senior project. Group project. Enough said. It is so hard to give out tasks and trust that they will be done and they will be done well. Here's the thing...I have an awesome group, and I love them so dearly. They always do what I ask, and they do it well. They just don't do it how I had visualized it in my mind, and I get frustrated. I hate having to trust others sometimes. Well, we're almost done.

3) I'm graduating soon....What on earth is in store for me? I have seen first hand how competitive the job market is, and it stresses me out.

4) The list continues with a series of personal and other insignificant things that I allow myself to worry about....

The other day I was researching stories behind various hymns to share on my radio show, and I came across the story for His Eye is on the Sparrow. Basically the woman who wrote it in the 1910ish era had a friend who was bedridden for many years who was married to a paralyzed man. When she asked this couple how they coped with their life of pain and affliction, the woman answered, "His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me."

It is my favorite hymn now...

Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Refrain

I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.

“Let not your heart be troubled,” His tender word I hear,
And resting on His goodness, I lose my doubts and fears;
Though by the path He leadeth, but one step I may see;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Refrain

Whenever I am tempted, whenever clouds arise,
When songs give place to sighing, when hope within me dies,
I draw the closer to Him, from care He sets me free;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Refrain