Ellie Holcomb – Roads Unknown

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None of us plan on left turns, valleys or barriers to waltz in and disrupt life. In a sense, we’re all probably aware that those things can happen, but until they are staring us in the face—pushing back against whatever plans we had in the works—it’s hard to understand or appreciate their gravity.

Ellie Holcomb is in a season seeped in gravitas. Her father was diagnosed with cancer last year, some of her dear friends experienced the loss of their babies and, most recently, her husband was battling meningitis.

These things were not in Holcomb’s plans. They caught her off guard, and revealed to her how little control she has over life’s events. Rather than be overwhelmed, however, Holcomb took these experiences—heartache and all—and turned them into music.

Music, it gave her a language through which to work out the nuances of these terribly difficult circumstances. Music, it gave her a soundtrack of hope instead of despair. Music, a tool for the rest of us to learn to hold on, be still, and let God be God—even in the depths.

The songs she wrote during this period have now come together on an album called Red Sea Road. Prompted by the story of the Israelites who fled Egypt only to face an army behind them and an ocean ahead. It was in their utmost moment of despair and helplessness when God showed up, parted the waters, and created a way where there was no way.

We recently caught up with Ellie Holcomb to hear her story in her own words.

CCM Magazine: You’ve had quite a year! We know there have been lots of ups and downs, but how is life today—how are you?
Ellie Holcomb: I am really great. I would say grateful is probably the best way to describe things. We had a crazy December. My husband was in the hospital for five days with viral meningitis. He came home two days before Christmas. It was insane, but one of the sweetest Christmases we’ve had.

CCM: The new project is beautiful, but we know that it was an emotionally wrenching one to make. Did you plan on following your debut with an album of this nature?
EH: After the first record, people asked me what I was going to do next. I really didn’t know. I just knew I was going to do life and be in His Word. I didn’t know if I’d make another record or not. The last two years have been really heavy in our community. There has been a lot of sorrow, suffering, and loss. I wrote this record as a way of singing God’s promises to my own heart; of seeing God meet our community in unbearable grief and sorrow.

CCM: The title is a gripping and interesting choice. Obviously, Red Sea Road must have something to do with Moses and the Israelites. How did you come to this idea for an entire album? Was it the overall story of the Exodus, or did something in particular grab you?
EH: It’s an interesting story. In one sense, it’s God delivering His people. They’d been set free with lots of suffering behind them, but now, there was an army and imminent death at their back. The sea was in front. If I’m with the Israelites, I know I’d be thinking that I would die if I just stayed there, but it could also kill me to walk through an ocean. But they are told something so powerful—to be still and let the Lord fight for them. They had no choice but to trust in an impossible situation.

CCM: You’ve faced a lot of impossible situations this year, particularly with your dad, that must have had a profound impact on your writing.
EH: Yes, I wrote a lot of these songs in the wake of a cancer diagnosis for my dad. I will never forget. It was a year ago, on my mom’s birthday, when they got the diagnosis. Nobody is ever ready for that or prepared, but my mom and dad wanted to have a praise and worship night at their house. I’ll never forget watching them run into all the unknown and darkness. It was the most unnatural response I’ve ever seen. In the same breath it was irresistible. Their posture was one of hope; not one that skirts its way around or ignores suffering, but one that faces it head-on and refuses to believe that it’s the end of the story had arrived. Philippians 4:4-7 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say again, rejoice.”

That’s a hard command, especially in the gut-wrenching things that life can throw at you. But there was a palpable presence of God that night. It’s marked me forever.

CCM: How could it not? Wow. So how does one come to a place where praise in the midst of despair is possible?
EH: There is a line in one of the songs that says, “You’re asking us to lay our worry down and sing a song instead…” That’s a radical ask. It doesn’t add up. It’s a mystery to be suffering and told to go ahead and rejoice and sing.

But knowing the guarantee of the nearness of God gives me a song to sing. It makes me want to sing and proclaim and share that hope. It’s not just a hope that God is good; it’s a hope that is grounded in an empty grave. It’s not rose-colored glasses. Look at the cross. Hope and light came from brutal suffering.

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