When Addison Road’s lead singer and founding member, Jenny Simmons, saw her band come to an amicable end, she was impacted more profoundly than she anticipated. The voice that powered such hit songs as “All That Matters” and “Hope Now” struggled with the transition. Jenny’s moving on and moving forward from that season of her life are captured in her debut solo album, The Becoming. 

 

We were blessed to host Jenny and her band mates for a house concert. During the concert, Jenny shared many personal stories about her time in between Addison Road and recording her new album. One memorable story she shared came from a grocery store. She told us that while she was in aisle 7 of the store staring at the packets of spaghetti and not knowing what to cook for dinner, a sense of failure, emptiness, and loneliness overwhelmed her. After sobbing in front of a complete stranger, she finally realized that her transition and the time of in-between was not as easy as she thought it was. I had the great opportunity to interview Jenny about one of the songs that came from that time in her life, "The Becoming."

 

 

One of the cool things about this song is that I co-wrote it with my friend Allie Rogers. We also wrote “What Do I Know of Holy” together. For me, that was such an ordained moment and song, and it was one of those things where I didn’t know if that Holy Spirit moment could happen again. It did with “The Becoming.” 

 

Allie and also Ellie Holcomb and I wrote this together. After pregnancy cravings of going and eating some bacon together, we talked about this guttural season that I was in personally. I was so broken, and as I was telling the girls about this season, I knew something was on the horizon. I know in my head that God is so faithful, and God shows up in our stories, and that our lives have purpose. The best days of my life aren’t behind me. I knew all of this logically, but in my heart I felt so lost. I had all of these overwhelming feelings. 

 

It was a few months after the tornado had gone through Joplin, Missouri. I had gone to Joplin to see the damage and when I stood on this hill, I could literally see the tornadoes path. It had cut down the middle of the town, and I remember how intense it was and how it scattered things everywhere. This image was in my head, and the Lord gave me this idea that I’ve been churned up in a storm and ended up somewhere else, like driftwood. 

 

I also wrote a blog about this, that my life has been like a storm where I’ve been carried away somewhere else from where I started. I felt so lost, and so broken. That’s the set-up for the song. In the middle of that, there's this really big desire to face the unknown and not run away from it.

 

Isaiah 43:19 (The Voice): “Watch closely: I am preparing something new; it’s happening now, even as I speak, and you’re about to see it. I am preparing a way through the desert; Waters will flow where there had been none.”

 

Romans 8:28 (The Voice): We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan.

 

 

As Addison Road was quitting, everything in me said that we didn’t need to quit, and we could keep it going. Everything in me wanted to cling to the band because I knew it and it was safe. It wasn’t ambiguous. It’s almost like an abusive relationship where even though it might be horrific, it seems better than starting over and being totally lost. 

 

That’s a huge issue we deal with as humans and as believers. If you really trust what the Bible says, we have a God who shows up in deserts. He shows up for His lost people. I believe that. 

 

There are some holy seasons where God says “you have to be like driftwood right now. You don’t get to know the answers. You don’t get to know what happens next. You are beat up, spit out, and in a different place than you’ve ever known.” It’s scary, terrifying and everything in you wants to go back to the past. It’s that season that this song is about. This song is that desperate cry when you are in that season.

 

The bridge of the song is the cry for hope: “Give me beauty in the ashes of this pain, give me water in the wasteland, let it rain. As I wonder in the darkness, be my guide, Oh Creator, oh Redeemer, bring new life.” The lyrics “water in the wasteland” come straight from Isaiah 43:19, which is what I cling to with all of my heart. The Lord tells us in that passage to forget the old things, and don’t dwell in the past. Then He tells us “see I’m doing a new thing. I’m making a way in the wasteland.” 

 

Yes, life is hard. If you believe God, then know that Scripture is full of examples of how God shows up in people’s lives. He leads His people out of deserts. You meet Jesus and He tells beautiful stories about one lost coin, and one lost sheep. He’s in the business of finding people. 

 

I hope and pray that this song allows people to grieve and mourn, and express hardship and pain. I also hope that this song is a prayer, “Jesus, meet me, be everything I need.”

 

 

I got goose bumps when I listen to Jenny sing her compelling title track “The Becoming” which reflects how God’s promise is being lived out in her life. I can’t get enough of the musical hooks, Jenny’s vulnerable and sincere vocals, and the extremely poignant lyrics in the song where she prays directly to God: “Give me beauty in the ashes of this pain / Give me water in the wasteland, let it rain / As I wonder, in the darkness, be my guide / Oh Creator, oh Redeemer bring new life/ And Jesus, Be everything that I need / In the waiting, In the in between /Jesus, hold me, Keep me from running / Cause I don't want to miss / The beauty of becoming.”

 

We are all a work in progress. Have faith and let God “work all things together for good.” Spend time with God and let Him redeem and restore you. We are not at the end of our story. God’s still writing our stories of redemption. God wants us to know that He’s faithful to complete what’s He’s started in all of us who’ve put all of our hope and trust in Jesus for our salvation. 

 

As followers of Jesus, we know that we can trust God’s Word. There is a chapter about the prophecy of Isaiah 53, more than 700 years before Jesus came to earth, in author and evangelist David Nasser's devotional book Glory Revealed which says: "The glory of the Lord is best revealed in His Word. When we begin to dig into the truth that is found within the pages of the Bible, we will begin to see His glory revealed." Amen to that!

 

(You can listen to the song here.)