Grace Graber says the reason you cannot forgive someone is usually not about that person at all. It is about someone you never forgave five years ago.

She was assaulted by a group of girls in middle school, and it got bad enough that her parents pulled her out of school. What she has done with that since is the conversation. "There's been plenty of times I don't want to forgive so and so for doing that to me," she told us. "The reason why is because I haven't forgiven so and so five years back for doing the same thing to me." She walks through what therapy taught her about digging for the belief underneath the hurt, why she thinks those beliefs are less lies than things you were taught, and why letting someone go can feel unsafe.

Grace is a Christian pop-punk artist in Nashville and a pastor's kid out of Sonoma County. A Hawk Nelson song stopped her from taking her own life at twelve, and her parents started driving her to Christian rock shows because they did not know what else to do. Every poster on that bedroom wall is a person in her life now. Her manager fronted Stellar Kart, her worship pastor spent fifteen years in Run Kid Run, and the drummer she met at church turned out to be Hawk Nelson's. A car accident took her ability to play guitar. The settlement paid for beauty school, and the job she got out of it ran the songwriting contest that took her to Nashville.

We also asked how a touring artist does church, and she did not dress up the answer.

ABOUT THE FORGIVEN

The Forgiven is a community and ministry for artists making heavy music for Jesus. We share their music, tell their stories, pray with them and support the work God has placed in their hands.

The show is hosted by Bill Branstetter, creator of Out of the Depths (a project setting every Psalm to metal, word for word), and Kate Nardone, host of Rock of Ages on AscendFM.

Explore every episode, meet the artists and shop The Forgiven:

https://theforgiven.co

Hear Grace Graber and more emerging Christian rock and metal:

https://theforgiven.co/playlist

CHAPTERS

0:00 Opener

0:50 Who is Grace Graber?

1:47 Two truths and a lie

2:54 Grace's testimony

3:30 The Hawk Nelson song that saved her life

6:33 Forgiveness, trauma and the roots beneath the hurt

10:42 "Mental health is a hope issue"

14:07 False beliefs, truth and healing

18:32 The car accident that changed everything

19:35 Finding her way back to music

21:39 Trusting God through changing seasons

24:54 Church hurt

25:24 How touring Christian artists do church

28:28 Finding a church community that understands

30:09 Bible study, The Bible Project and AI

31:43 What Grace would tell her teenage self

33:47 Learning guitar and becoming a songwriter

34:20 How PUNK X PRAISE happened

38:36 Social media and refusing to chase trends

40:00 How worship songs become punk

41:33 Lightning round

44:26 Jericho and what's next

45:23 How to pray for Grace

FOLLOW

Grace Graber: https://www.instagram.com/gracegrabermusic/

Bill Branstetter: https://www.instagram.com/outofthedepthsmusic/

Kate Nardone: https://www.instagram.com/radiohostkatehartnardone/

#GraceGraber #PopPunk #ChristianRock #PunkXPraise #TheForgiven