If I’m ever stranded on a deserted island and I can only listen to one album the rest of my days, Heart by Audrey Assad is the album I’d choose. Heart is loaded with meaningful, engaging and beautiful songs and is the most amazing album by a female vocalist I've ever heard. The album ranks with Invisible Empires by Sara Groves and Albertine by Brooke Fraser as a flawless and emotional depiction of the beauty and majesty of our Creator's "Heart."

Thank you, Audrey, for blessing us with your gifted, gorgeous vocals and for pouring yourself into songs that deeply stir my soul. Audrey Assad is my favorite new female vocalist and this album really captures the beauty and sincerity of her incredible vocals and stirring songs. The House You're Building--one of my top 10 albums of 2010--captivated me, and Heart has completely “won me over.” From start to finish, all 12 songs weave a tapestry that is artful, engaging, catchy, emotional, and after several listens and goosebump-inducing moments, I am convinced that this is my now my favorite album--EVER. 

I can’t get enough of Audrey’s singing voice and the incredible and introspective messages of her great songs. Audrey’s first year of marriage framed the entire writing process of this album as her husband learned he had treatable cancer and you can at times physically feel Audrey’s soul-imploring emotions in these flawless and compelling songs. I had the great opportunity to interview last year’s GMA Dove Award nominated new artist and female vocalist of the year about her current single, “Sparrow.”

Please share the background that led you to record the song "Sparrow."

Believe it or not, and I’m almost ashamed to say that I first heard the song while I was watching the movie Sister Act 2. That was my first exposure to the hymn, “His Eye Is On The Sparrow.” I remember loving it and thinking it was really beautiful. I was young--maybe 10 or 11 years old when I saw that movie.

I’ve always loved the song, and I never thought about re-working it until I was writing songs with a friend named Kyle Lee. We were working on something else and it wasn’t going anywhere. I told Kyle that I was looking at the lyrics of the hymn and thinking it would be easy to rearrange and write a new melody for the song. The thing about it is that I think the lyrics are some of the most straightforward of any song I’ve come across. To be completely honest, I don’t find them easy to believe most of the time. I wrote a melody for the song with Kyle that I could sing that was a little more wistful, a little less bravado, a little more wishing, a little less certain. The reason behind that is just to make the song an accurate reflection of how I think and how I live my life.

I preach to myself with this song like in the tradition of David in the Psalms. When he says “Bless the Lord, O my soul” it is because he doesn’t always want to do it. I don’t always feel sure of God’s presence or that He’s watching me so I write songs about that because that’s what I want and I’m wishing for. It’s a belief that is not always driven by experience but it is based on having faith in God’s presence being with me.

Which Bible verses best connect to the message of the song?

Matthew 10:28-30: And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

How has that passage and the message of this song been a part of your life? What’s the takeaway message of this song and new album?

When I sing the lyrics “I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free” I think about the definition of the word happy. Dictionary.com defines “Happy” as "characterized by or indicative of pleasure, contentment, or joy: a happy mood; a happy frame of mind." The meaning of the word happy has been changed over the years, but there are elements in the definition of the word that includes being blessed, more than “feeling good.” So, those aspects of being happy can be applied no matter what state you are in as a Christian, having joy and being blessed.

I find those statements to be true regardless of how I’m feeling that day. I think there’s value in singing about being happy and free in Christ. I also think there’s value in singing about how I really feel, which is more doubtful or sorrowful as I’m sure you hear in songs on both of my albums. There is a lot of value in singing about higher Truth rather than just my subjective reality of truth. I find lyrics like the ones in this song have a lot of value to me personally in my walk with God. Most of my songs just aren’t that way. Most of the time, I singing about my thoughts and how I’m really sad or wistful.

I got married about a year ago and I started recording this album about six months ago. A lot of the songs came directly out of the experience of confronting myself in the light of another person entering my life and that kind of love is very revealing. Many people say marriage is like a mirror and you see yourself in ways that you never have. Some of what you find out about yourself you like and some of what you find out about yourself, you don’t like very much. I found that type of love confronting me in a lot of new ways. I learned a lot about my own heart, which is why I called the album Heart and also about the heart of God through the experience of my husband learning he had treatable cancer in the first few months of our marriage.

He’s doing very well, but introducing that sickness into our lives in the first year of our marriage really flipped a switch for me. I felt like I didn’t have unrealistic expectations of marriage, mostly from great counselors who we respect advising us beforehand. I definitely didn’t expect cancer though. So the switch flipped for me that life still happens and your body is still your body and sickness is sickness and it doesn’t do anything for me except change Who you are walking with. I felt very at peace right away. My husband already had cancer when we got married, and just didn’t know. Any idea I had that our first year would be easy and fun with no troubles was not reality, it was my ideal. So what was I robbed of? Not reality, just my ideal. That’s a gift because open eyes are the best kinds of eyes and I’m just glad to have them. It puts everything into perspective.

Lyrics:
Why should I be lonely, long for heaven and home
When Jesus is my portion and a constant Friend I know

I sing because I'm happy, I sing because I'm free
For His eye is on the sparrow, His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He's watching me

Why should I be troubled when His tender word I hear
I rest on His goodness in my doubt and in my fear

I sing because He loves me, I sing because I'm free
For His eye is on the sparrow, His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He's watching me

Matthew Henry’s commentary: “Now He that feeds the sparrows, will not starve the saints. They do not fall to the ground by death, either a natural or a violent death, without the notice of God: though they are so small a part of the creation, yet even their death comes within the notice of the divine providence; much more does the death of His disciples. Observe, The birds that soar above, when they die, fall to the ground; death brings the highest to the earth. Some think that Christ here alludes to the two sparrows that were used in cleansing the leper; the two birds in the margin are called sparrows; of these one was killed, and so fell to the ground, the other was let go. Now it seemed a casual thing which of the two was killed; the persons employed took which they pleased, but God’s providence designed, and determined which. Now this God, who has such an eye to the sparrows, because they are His creatures, much more will have an eye to you, who are His children. If a sparrow die not without your Father, surely a man does not,—a Christian,—a minister,—my friend, my child. Therefore be not afraid of death, for your enemies have no power against you, but what is given them from above. God can break their bows and snares and make our souls to escape as a bird; Fear ye not, therefore. There is enough in the doctrine of God’s providence to silence all the fears of God’s people: Ye are of more value than many sparrows. All men are so, for the other creatures were made for man, and put under His feet; much more the disciples of Jesus Christ, who are the excellent ones of the earth, however contemned, as if not worth one sparrow.”

Hymns of the faith like “Sparrow” have a perfectly poetic biblical description of God, and are filled with piercingly difficult Truths to believe all of the time. When you put yourself under a microscope and examine whether you really believe all of the words of this great song, you’ll find that it will challenge your faith and how closely you are walking with God. Like Audrey, I am challenged to believe these words when I sing along with her and “know He's watching me.”

We need to truly be free in Christ and be happy and filled with joy. We are in a fallen world, and if you take the Truth of what it means to follow Christ, you know you weren’t made for this world. We all need to remember that earth isn’t our permanent home and our freedom from the restlessness of this world will come when we enter the true rest that can only come from living eternally with Jesus Christ.

As we soon begin this Lenten season, this song has become a personal worship anthem for me to sing daily and remember the lyrics: “Why should I be lonely, long for heaven and home, When Jesus is my portion and a constant Friend I know.”

“Sparrow” is a great follow-up to Audrey’s amazing song "Restless.” As St. Augustine put it so perfectly, “our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” Amen.