I’m on a plane today, flying home from Florida, where I got to do another Word Alive event with Lysa Terkhurst, and my heart is overwhelmed with the way that God’s word continues to breathe life into me and with the way that music continues to connect so many people’s stories with my own and ultimately with the story of God’s love for us. Next week, it will have been two years since I released my record, Red Sea Road, into the world, and I continue to be humbled and amazed by how much these songs continue to ring true with people.
I wrote Red Sea Road smack dab in the middle of a three year period of serious loss and seemingly senseless suffering. I didn’t have neat and tidy endings to the stories of loss we were in the middle of, and I didn’t have answers. I still don’t. What I did encounter in a life-altering way during this deeply painful season, is the person of Christ, a Man of sorrows well acquainted with grief. Jesus didn’t just fix everything and make it better overnight, but there was a profound sense that even though we were suffering, we were NOT ALONE. The sorrow wasn’t shocking to Him. He had been there before, and He knew the way through it, and He held us as we wept and questioned and ached and doubted and prayed.
I knew that I needed to write the songs on Red Sea Road to help remind my forgetful soul of the comfort and hope we received from Jesus during that heart-wrenching season. What I didn’t know is how strongly these songs would connect with other people who were suffering as well. I don’t know why I didn’t anticipate that, but night after night, I have had the privilege of hearing some of your stories of heartache and hope. I have wept with you as some of you have described loss to me that I couldn’t imagine, and I have prayed with many of you who have shared your own stories of suffering with me. I have cried reading your stories on Instagram and Facebook and through emails, and I have felt honored to sing alongside you in these places of grief and pain. I have also felt deeply encouraged, over and over again, that we don’t do this life alone… that everyone suffers, but that God doesn’t neglect or forsake the suffering… He draws near. He weeps with us, He dies for us, and now He lives to intercede for us. He holds, comforts, surrounds, and heals us.
So thank you for listening. Thank you for singing along. Thank you for sending me videos of your precious children singing the truths in these songs in the back of your car. Thank you for telling me your stories. Even though I wrote these songs to remind my own soul of the truth, I’ve been humbled to discover that these songs have reminded YOU of the truth as well. So many days, as you have shared your own stories of suffering and hope with me, you have in turn reminded me of the beautiful truth of the gospel… life to the full. The fullness of God’s love and mercy in both the heights of our joy and the depths of our sorrow. It’s been one of the most communal and beautiful experiences of my life.
We will sing to our souls
We won’t bury our hope
Where He leads us to go
There’s a Red Sea Road
When we can’t see the way
He will part the waves
And we’ll never walk alone
Down a Red Sea Road
I didn’t realize that I really would get to sing with so many weary and wounded souls. Our broken and beautiful voices have mingled together over the past two years. Thank you for singing the truth into the dark along with me. It’s been my honor to sing with you, whether it was at a show, or in your car, or your living room, or the hospital room. Wherever you have let these songs into your life, thank you. My hope is less buried because of you. I’ve seen God meet you and move in your lives, and I’m better for it. I’ve always believed that music has the ability to connect us, and I’m so grateful for the way I’ve had the privilege of connecting with so many of you.
I’m also feeling so grateful for the community of folks who helped me write and record this record, and then the precious team of people who helped me release it into the world. Thank you to every writer, musician, engineer, and producer. Thank you to my manager, booking agency, publicity team, and radio team. Thank you to my family and community of dear friends for your support and love, and especially to my husband Drew, who is my dearest friend and deepest encourager. And finally, thank you, Jesus, for giving us a reason to keep hoping and keep singing.
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Red Sea Road is available everywhere music is sold: https://www.ellieholcomb.com/red-sea-road
RED SEA ROAD | ELLIE HOLCOMB | OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO