Getting Real With Grace Runkle
“I just want Jesus, and I just want more of Him.”
This summer, we sat with Grace to discuss her faith journey, alongside big changes in her life.
Interview by Cody Cooksey
June 25, 2026
Earlier this year, you posted about how Christian artists should be making the best art that's found in “The Secret Place”. How did you come to that realization?
I want to point to God as Creator, He creates the world. The first thing He does is create. Then He calls it good. God was able to look at something He created and call it good, and I think that falls in the fact that He is God, He is Creator, and He is good. So what He's creating is good, and He has good intentions behind it. So now that we bear the image of God, if we've been staring at God, who is the most beautiful Creator imaginable, if I'm bearing His image, and His Holy Spirit is in me, then I want what I make to be with pure intention. I want it to be beautiful, because I literally have the Holy Spirit inside of me. We see in Exodus 31 someone getting indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and it was a craftsman, an artist named Bezalel. The purpose of the Holy Spirit indwelling him was so that he would actually be a craftsman that carved things into the temple of God. So the thing that is holding the Spirit of God, the Spirit indwelt him to make it beautiful. If the Spirit of God that indwelled in a temple is now indwelling in me, I want to bear His image with beauty. The Holy Spirit could dwell in people to make them beautiful craftsmen and artists. When I look at a lot of the media and entertainment in the world, we see a lack of authenticity and creativity, in my opinion, of a lot of the Christian media out there, whether you compare TV shows or movies to a lot of things in the secular industry, it's almost like there's something missing, like we're ten years behind where the rest of the world is. I believe that if we want to engage culture with the Gospel, then we need to actually engage it with a message and with communicating in a way that connects to the world and connects to those people. We're all human, and we all have this desire to connect with things that really speak to our humanity. In my personal experience, my walk with God, and my journey with Him, when I'm able to be most authentically myself and honest, I think the best art comes out. It's not about asking “How much money can I get?”, “How many of these can I get?”, or “What is going to give me praise in the church industry?”, but rather “What is God actually putting on my heart, and how do I articulate it and in an authentic way?”. I've just found that when I do it partnered with God, it's beautiful, but it takes that intentionality.
What was your process like spiritually when moving out to Nashville from Lynchburg? Were you following what God was telling you to do or was it like taking a chance, what was your thought process there?
I was planning to move to LA, I have a really great community there. There's a great body of believers that I've grown really close with, and they are excellent artists. I wanted to move to a place where I felt like I was surrounded by a community that just really connected with me. I'm out of college now. I want to be around adults who have jobs. I was going to move into this house with these girls, and then a week before I was supposed to get there, the housing situation totally fell through. So I was like, “Okay, where are we going?”, and a door opened in Nashville with these sweet girls in this house. Often I do feel called or led by the Lord because I speak with Him every single day, but I think God actually also gives us the opportunity to make choices, and just keep Him as Lord over our life when we make those choices. So L.A. was one of those things where I said, “Lord, I'm choosing to move here. If you don't want me here, close the door.”, and He did. “I don't feel like You came and You called me to Nashville, but I'm gonna choose to move to Nashville because this makes sense, and this feels wise. Lord, lead me, guide me, continue to be the center of everything.” That's what it's been like. It's been so great, amazing. I have a lot of peace living here, but also there are times where I'm like, “Dang, why wasn't I able to make it out to LA?”, because there's things that I'm longing for, and I miss my friends who are there. I think we can make decisions to go places and choose opportunities. It's the same with music. I'm not just called to be a musician. I'm not just called to sing on stages. No, I'm called to be a Gospel preacher, fulfill the Great Commission, and love God with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love the people around me. That's what I'm called to do, and it's the same as what you're called to. It just looks different because we have different gifts and different opportunities. I took initiative and walked through certain doors that were open, and I said, “Okay, God, show me, and don't put me on a stage until I'm ready. Don't let me move to LA if I'm not ready.”, and I guess I wasn't. I feel like I'm still waiting on things that I'm praying for, but that's the life of a believer. Not to understand everything, but to have faith, trust God, and find peace in Him that is greater than my understanding. That's the season that I'm in right now.
You recently put out your own rendition of Forrest Frank's song “OKAY”. It kind of blew up, what was your initial reaction to the response from that? What does that mean for your music from here on out?
Great question. I don't know what it necessarily means because we haven't heard back, but I was very surprised. It was very much a shot in the dark. It was kind of funny, and a little bit out of my comfort zone as an artist. What I do is a little bit different than that, but I was like, “Hey, this is an open door. This is an opportunity. So I might as well take it and see what happens”. I think it's fun to do things that you're afraid to do, and I honestly was afraid to do it. I didn't know people were going to receive it. Same with the song I have coming out on Friday (June 26, 2026). I don't know how people are going to receive it, but the beauty and joy of being an artist is you get to make stuff and put it out there, and it's not about what people think. People really connected with it and love it. My room was half packed up, all my stuff was in boxes. I was very busy, and I was scrolling on Instagram while folding my laundry, when the open verse challenge popped up, and I told myself I was gonna do it if I saw another one. The way that he let everyone on the album last time, I figured that could have been me. I told myself in my head that if he does that again, I think I'm gonna run it. Then it popped up and I was like, “Oh, man, am I gonna do this?” I stopped everything I was doing, grabbed my mic, and recorded vocals until three in the morning. I got it mixed, found a videographer, and we ran it up. My life was in shambles and everything, but I told myself I'm gonna do this. If you have an idea for something, and you feel motivated to do it after you first skip the idea, I'm such a supporter of just doing it. Don't sit on it and overthink it, because then all of a sudden it starts to feel really, really daunting, and really big. Just run it. That's how I started music. I was like, “Maybe I'll make a song. That'd be fun”. So I did. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know how to do it. You just gotta do stuff. You never know what could happen.
Tell us a bit about your song “breaks my heart”?
This one is so out of my comfort zone, but it has been a blast. As an artist, I really want to showcase myself at my core, asking “What's going on in my life?” “What am I feeling?” “What am I thinking?” There's so many songs out there about love, relationships, breakups, and dating. The majority of them, like 99.999% of them, are from a secular perspective. I realized that as I'm walking through life, I've been single my whole life. I'm twenty-two years old walking through life, navigating dating through that, and doing it with the Lord, all while experiencing it as a human being. A lot of those songs have this worldly view, that if I want to process these emotions, it's pulling me into these sinful habits, patterns, and thought patterns, all of which are not honoring the Lord. I know if I'm a Christian girly navigating dating, who's made God the center of my life, I want music that's talking about dating from a Christian perspective. There's probably other girls out there who would relate. I've had a lot of interesting experiences in my life, in the world of dating and love. I wrote this song at the end of last year, just processing a lot of things that had happened that year and over the years. It was one that kind of came out in the moment, and felt it was just emotions I was feeling. After I wrote it, I realized this could really connect with people. So it's this new kind of angle of Christian music that I'm curious to see how people will receive. For me, it's not about who's willing to receive it. I just want to make it and put it out there, see what happens. It's from this perspective of struggling to date and find guys that I have chemistry with and are spiritually aligned with me, because I am not desperate for love. I'm so willing to wait for God's timing, but I just had some funny experiences. I've lost a lot of friendships with guys in my life because there was a mismatch with chemistry, or a mismatch with spiritual alignment. It is one of those things I realize is hard sometimes. I'm a mature, spiritually sound woman of God, and there just hasn't been the man for me in this world. It's funny, and you can laugh at me, but I'm an artist, so I'm gonna talk about it, and I don't care if people laugh at me for it. There have probably been one hundred women and men in my DMs sending me a message saying, “Thank you for talking about this. I had never seen someone come out with music like this and relate to me.”. Now this is something that people are going to be able to listen to. So as they're struggling and they're navigating the world of love, they're listening to something from the perspective of a girl. Basically in the song I'm saying, “I don't know how to do this, am I the problem? I can't connect with these guys, but Jesus is the thing that I've really been looking for. I'm anxious, but He's not.”. The lyrics say, “I'm anxious, but You're not. Been looking for the ending, and I realized I was missing the point of it all, learning how to trust You in the middle.”. That's really the point of the song, asking how do I learn to trust God while I'm navigating dating relationships and feelings and emotions? I think it's a cool, new perspective that people will connect with. I'm a Christian and I make art that’s not sinful and rather glorifies the Lord. It's my expression, my walk with God. When I'm before the Lord, I am the most raw, real, messy, part of myself. If I'm withholding those things from the Lord, I'm withholding those things from my art, and I'm not even willing to heal as a person, or really even tap into my humanity. I think a lot of Christians are afraid of that. They're afraid to come messy before the Lord. I want to show Christians, young women, everyone, that you can be messy and still come before the Lord, and He will literally come and be a Good Father to you, He will heal you, and He will help you navigate things. We walk by faith, not by sight.
Give us your elevator testimony?
I was dead, and now I'm alive, and Christ has completely redeemed my life. I grew up hearing about the Gospel, and I think I believed it in my head, but I never loved God with my heart or with my life. Anything I did for God was to please people. In my freshman year of college, I got radically saved. Night and day, it's like everything that I'd been told growing up was finally made real to me, and it started with understanding the forgiveness of God. I realized that if God has truly forgiven me, died for me, and has done this for me out of love, how could I ever go back to the things that I was doing? Why would I ever go back to the sin to fulfill my life? The hidden things, the hiddenness in my life? I've been radically transformed by the love of God, by a relationship with a real man who really came and died for me, even before I loved him, even before I knew Him. I experience life now. I'm more myself than I've ever been, and I've completely died to the ways that I thought I was supposed to live. Praise God, hallelujah. He’s filled me with joy, with peace, and with life. I've healed in so many ways. and I love Him with all my heart.
What is your life verse?
I feel like a passage that's meant a lot to me in the past two years is Hebrews 10, I believe 17-25. It talks about how I can boldly, with confidence, approach the throne of God, and enter the holy places by His blood. I think it's so impactful for me, because everything external that you see about my life, the art that I've made, any of the ministry that I've done, and impact I've made in the world comes from an internal understanding of a right standing with God because of what He's done. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how much I did. If I did this much for God or if I did that much for God, if I got this amount of fame or that amount of fame, if I reached this many people or that many people, my standing with God is right and it's only by His blood. No matter what happens, no matter if I'm in the lowest of lows of my life or the highest of highs, I have a place to call home. I can enter the Holy of Holies by His blood, my sin has been washed away, and I can enter purely and cleanly. Having that as what I've rooted my life in and what I hold onto, no matter what, has grounded me as a person so much that I'm able to have confidence about the art that I'm making, because I know that my identity is not on any stage I will ever go on. I don't even want it. I just want Jesus, and I just want more of Him. The fact that I can come before Him freely, anytime I want, and get more of God. I will see more of God because I can, because of what He's done. It's all because of what He's done. That is everything to me. It's my anchor, it's my lifeline. It's transforming me day by day.
You can check out Grace Runkle on Instagram and Spotify.