Faithful on the Clock is a podcast with the mission of getting your work and faith aligned. We want you to understand Who you're serving and why so you can get more joy and legacy from every minute spent on the clock. Thanks for joining us and taking this step toward a more fulfilling job and relationship with God!

Want to join us on social media?

We'd love to have you stay up-to-date with the show on all our platforms!

Threads

Bluesky

Facebook

Pinterest

Instagram

LinkedIn

YouTube

In this episode...

Persisting for the Long Haul with Dan Parr

https://faithfulontheclock.com/persisting-for-the-long-haul-with-dan-parr

The business world likes to preach fast results, but in Episode 143 of Faithful on the Clock, voiceover artist and publisher Dan Parr reminds us of the value of persistence.

Timestamps:

[00:04] - Intro

[00:39] - Dan’s welcome and background; how he got started working on the Easy to Understand, Read Bible

[05:36] - Dan’s experience of not getting overwhelmed through the project

[06:45] - Keeping the majesty of the Bible while achieving simplicity and accessibility

[09:26] - Addressing conceptions about the audience; simple doesn’t mean unintelligent; the translation as a gateway

[12:51] - Advice for those who don’t feel like they could persist in work God calls them to do

[14:39] - Advice for those doubting themselves or encountering pushback for not being “qualified” for a big, long-term project

[17:56] - The revelation Dan had about God as he completed the narration

[20:37] - How the project changed Dan’s perspective of the big picture and being open to new things

[21:31] - What initially caused Dan to be resistant to the project

[23:26] - The skills Dan realized through the project that God had equipped him with

[28:50] - Advice for those who feel called to persist but who aren’t getting the signal to continue from the world

[30:34] - How Dan is measuring success on the project

[32:40] - What Dan wants readers to take away from his translation

[35:01] - What Dan learned from getting enmeshed in Word during the project

[36:38] - The legacy Dan hopes for with the Bible and concepts for future work

[39:14] - How to find more of Dan’s work

[39:48] - Prayer

[41:11] - Outro

Key takeaways:

1. Dan started his Bible narration work with the book of Luke. After his corporate job suddenly ended, God soon led him to continue to the entire Bible.
2. Because Dan did the project book by book, he had milestone gratification and didn’t get overwhelmed.
3. Dan strove to make the translation accessible, not “dumbed down.” He aims for his work to be an “I get it now” gateway that gets people to seek God more intently.
4. Dan doesn’t consider himself persistent by nature, but he recognizes that God used his ability to dig in when he has a knack for something. He believes that when God calls you to operate in an area where you’re already good, He’ll equip you to accomplish the purposes He has.
5. Dan encourages those who get criticism or caution for being unqualified to listen to others but also try to get a clear message from God. It’s possible for people to walk new paths and leave the status quo if that’s what God intends.
6. God is a God of intense love, and we can see the pattern of that love through the entire Bible.
7. Telling God no can make you miserable — accept that God is the star and don’t fight what He asks you to persist with. Even when we doubt ourselves, we can trust in His ability to work through us, and He often prepares us before we even realize that’s what He was doing.
8. Hold everything loosely — God can change what we do in an instant.
9. When you don’t get confirmation from the world that you should persist, ask yourself if you are doing the work for your own glory or for God’s.
10. Dan doesn’t measure success of the project by numbers, instead letting God do the back-end sales work while he does his own job — creating the content.
11. Working on the project helped Dan realize that he’s part of the Biblical line — he’s just telling his family story.
12. Thanks to completing the new translation, Dan is filled with ideas for even more potential projects.

CTAs:

1. Explore Dan’s work, perhaps starting with his translation of Luke.
2. Identify some of the elements of the Bible that have been difficult for you to understand, or where you’ve gotten “stuck” understanding the Word. Consider what might happen if you got clarity in those areas.
3. Test a few other translations of the Bible to see if any “click” with you. Try to be specific about why a translation works for you, such as the rhythm, specific word choices, etc.

What’s coming up next:

All of us like finally being rewarded for our effort. But what if you work…and the rewards don’t come? Episode 144 of Faithful on the Clock explores.

Support the show!

Visit the Faithful on the Clock Patreon page to choose a tier plan and become a supporting member. You'll gain access to goodies like early episode access, newsletters, and more based on the plan that's right for you.

patreon.com/faithfulontheclock

Give a one-off tip or donation on our Captivate support page. You can become a member there with the same great tier options you'll find at Patreon, too.

Support Faithful on the Clock

Visit our sister site! Faithfulonthclock.com features additional free, free-with-registration, and paid access content to grow your faith, including

1. social media archives,
2. previously published faith-based articles,
3. original blogs,
4. inspirational videos,
5. episode teasers and replays
6. exclusive faith-based essays and articles,
7. exclusive videos
8. exclusive audio
9. exclusive in-depth devotionals.

Share the show! Like these episodes? Share them on social media, in texts or emails, or in person.

Thibodeaux

Welcome, welcome, welcome, everybody to Faithful on the Clock, the podcast for Christian professionals where every slice of bread gets toasted to get your faith and work aligned. Now, in today’s business world, we all want quick wins. We love immediate returns — you know, if we have to do something for a long time, it’s like, ugh. But sometimes the best results come when we persist and play the long game. My guest Dan Parr is gonna share his insights about how to do that and what it’s like. Let’s jump right in.

Thibodeaux

Hello, listeners. Thanks for joining me for another episode of Faithful on the Clock. I'm your host, Wanda Thibodeaux, and joining me today is des — guest Dan Parr. He is a talented voiceover artist, but he is also a publisher who deeply loves the word of God. And His most recent work, and the reason he is on the show today, is the Easy to Understand, Read Bible. So, welcome Dan. Thank you for being on the show. I really appreciate your time.

Parr

It's a pleasure to be here. Wanda, thanks for having me on.

Thibodeaux

OK. Well, I usually try to start out with guests, just to give a little bit of background, so tell us about yourself. You know, what do we need to know about you?

Parr

Yeah. So, like you said, I am a voiceover talent. That's what I do, day in and day out. But I've also become almost somewhat of a reluctant Bible publisher and narrator. I say that only half jokingly, because, you know, if you had told me five years ago that I was gonna be coming out with a version of the Bible, I would have thought you were insane, because who does that? But yet, I did. It was just one of those things where I had a corporate job. That ended unexpectedly. And I was kind of questioning, “Well, now what, God?” And He said, “You know that little Bible thing you've been working on? Why don't you continue pursuing that?” And so, five years later, here I am, a — an — publisher of the Bible.

Thibodeaux

Okay, so you say you were kind of working on it in advance. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? So, is this something that you were kind of just fiddling with, and then when you started to have the time, you're like, “Okay, yeah, I'll take this seriously.”? You know, is that kind of how it developed?

Parr

Thibodeaux

Oh, dear.

Parr

Yeah, great timing, right?

Thibodeaux

Yeah.

Parr

But, you know, it was all in God's plan, and now I'm so thankful for it, because it freed me up to do something like this. And you know, I had a lot of protesting with God about doing it because I didn't want to do it, because I knew what a large project it would be. And He just continued to put up with my excuses and hammer them down one by one, until I finally just, you know, said, “Okay, God, Your will be done,” and I got into the work.

Thibodeaux

So, I think this is kind of the way it happens for a lot of people through their careers, though, is like, they take that first initial step, and they kind of get a little bit of experience, right? They kind of test the waters. And then they have that inkling, maybe I should do it a little bit more, and then they go to the next level. So, it sounds kind of like that — that's the way it snowballed for you, as well.

Parr

Absolutely. You know, you give God an inch, and if you have an obedient heart and you're willing, He's going to kick that door wide open and continue to do it. You know, funny enough, the only thing I was planning on doing was just putting up a little Facebook video about the resurrection of Christ around Easter. So, I thought, yeah, I'll do that for my family and friends. Went to the book of Luke, found the resurrection story, and I thought, well, I'm gonna rewrite this a little bit, make it easier to understand for people, and put that up there. And, you know, I — it didn't go viral by any means, but a few people liked it. And that's when I got the idea, well, what if I just did the book of Luke? Wouldn't that be crazy? And I enjoyed the process of rewriting it, trying to make it as simple as possible, to lower the entry barrier for —- for people. And so, I did the book of Luke, and since I'm a voiceover talent, I put it on Audible and Amazon, and it just kind of continued to go from there. You know, after I finished the book of Luke, I sensed God prompting me, saying, “You know, the book of Acts is really the book of Luke Part Two,” right?

Thibodeaux

Yes.

Parr

“Don't you think they need to know the rest of the story?” He doesn't give you the whole picture at once because, you know, I would freak out and say, “No way!” for sure. But step by step, He led me down the path until I — you know, after four years, completed everything,

Thibodeaux

Sure. Four years, I mean, that is — that is an enormous commitment. And I can tell you, as a writer myself, like, I know, going — like, I just finished my own devotional. So, I know what that commitment is like. So, I'm kind of curious, you know, as we're talking about how long that actually took, was there any moment where you kind of, really, you're like, “Oh my gosh, I don't know if I can get through this”? You know, is there any time like that, or were you just pretty much committed?

Parr

You know, I think because of the way He led me to do it, which is book by book, it didn't get that overwhelming. There were certainly times within different books, that I was going, “Are you kidding me, I have to go through this again?”

Thibodeaux

Sure.

Parr

Going through — going through the Old Testament, I can't tell you how many times I had to say the word circumcision. I was so tired of it.

Thibodeaux

Right.

Parr

But yeah. I think just because of the way I did it by, book by book, and then releasing it by book, you know, I was able to get that gratification of, okay, this project's done. I can release it. I can put it out there into the world. Take a breath for a second. Okay, that day is over. Now jump into the next book.

Thibodeaux

Sure. Okay. Well, looking at, you know, you had mentioned, you know, this is designed to be a little bit more simple, accessible, right for people. So, I'm curious. There's this tension between having it easy to understand, which is the goal, but also, you know, I think sometimes with language, there's kind of like a majesty, majesty and mystery that is with scripture, especially if you get into like Hebrew roots and things like that, there's a poetry to that. So, as you're translating this and you're trying to keep it simple, how are you navigating that tension where you're not removing that gravity that the Bible has, but you're still getting the simplicity that you're aiming for?

Parr

Right. And that was one of the major concerns and complaints that I had before going into this project. I was telling, God, “I don't know Hebrew. I don't know Greek. I'm not a Bible scholar. I'm not a theologian. I don't even have a seminary degree.” None of that seemed to matter to Him, because He continued to push upon my heart to — to get this done. So, what I did when I went through this is, you know, first I looked at the King James Version. And like you say, you know, there's a majesty to it. It's — it's beautiful. But from a voiceover artist perspective, trying to come at that text and bring it alive, I thought, “Ooo, you know, that's, that's more than I can handle.” So, that's why I had to come out with the — the new version, something easy enough, one for me to read, and two, to understand. So, as I went through it, what I did is I checked, probably throughout the course of it, you know, one or two dozen different versions of the text, be it ESV, you know, in New King James Version, NIV, all the different things that are out there, all the different translations that are out there. Because the last thing I wanted to do was misrepresent the Word of God. You know, I think it's the most important piece of literature ever written. It stands miles above everything else, and I didn't want to get it wrong. You know, I knew, at one point, I'm gonna have to face my Maker, and He's like, “What are you doing here?” Yeah, so I would, as I went through it, and I come up with a challenging verse, I checked several different other versions, see how they historically interpreted it, and then I just put my own spin in it to make it say the same thing, but say it as simply as possible. You know, just as a simple example, if I say, “My friend John bought a red car,” that's pretty simple, right? But, you know, if I were to say, “I have a close companion who purchased a vehicle. For the vehicle, he chose the color red,” right? You're saying the same thing, right? One's just much more simple to understand.

Thibodeaux

Right. Right.

Parr

So, that was kind of the goal with all of it.

Thibodeaux

OK. So, you know, when you're — when you're looking at trying to keep things simple, you know, that's kind of like you're — you’re considering your audience there. Did you find that you had any assumptions or biases about the audience that you had to kind of really stay aware of as you were trying to keep it simple?

Parr

You know, as I was going through this, what I wanted to do is make sure that if there was somebody who didn't come out of a faith background, if they didn't know anything about Jesus, if they didn't know anything about the Bible or God or terms like sanctification or justification, that they'd be able to pick this up and say, “Oh, I get that now.” So, that was who I had in mind as I was preparing this, that they would just be able to pick it up and say, “Oh, OK, I get it.” Not go, “Four cubits. What in the world is that?”

Thibodeaux

Yeah.

Parr

Thibodeaux

Yeah. Well, I love that you said that though, because I think sometimes people do get intimidated by some of the translations that are out there. But we have to be careful that when we say the word simple, we don't mean not intelligent.

Parr

Right.

Thibodeaux

It just means that, like you're saying, that it's accessible and that it's not, you know, so elevated that we have to really struggle to wrap our heads around it, and that it's — it's easy to use, you know, for your — your audience. So, I love that you are focusing on that. Because I think sometimes people, they — they think of that idea, “Oh, well, it's dumbed down.” Well, no, it's not. It's just in a language that you can really work with in an easy way. There's a difference. You know what I mean?

Parr

Absolutely. And I like to think of this as a gateway, right?

Thibodeaux

Yeah.

Parr

So, this is something that gets people into the Bible, and if they want to go deeper, there are other translations that will obviously do that much better than what I've done here, because that's their focus. My goal is just to get them into the Word where they can become engaged with it and see its transformational power and let God speak to them through it. And then, you know, go as deep as you want. That's what I hope will happen, right?

Thibodeaux

Yeah. Yeah.

Parr

That they get into this and they — they just fall in love with it, like I have.

Thibodeaux

Yeah, well, I love that, because I think sometimes if you're stumbling over the translation, and that's really hard, then that — like, that experience of, like, feeling that anxiety around that, and like, being — having that difficulty really translating that for yourself, I think that can end up being a barrier to starting to ask — you're so busy looking at the translation that you're not asking questions about God and Who He is. So, if you remove that barrier, like you're saying, then that makes God accessible. It's not just the text, it's everything that that text represents. So, to have that simplified, I think, is a very, very important thing.

Parr

Yeah. And the thing I had to come to grips with is, do I believe God is truly sovereign, right? Does He have control over everything? And the answer of that for me is yes. And so, I thought, if that's the case, and I'm going at this with a pure heart, not trying to put any spin into it, just trying to honor God and His Word, then I believe that He can work through a simple vessel like me to reach people with this text.

Thibodeaux

Yeah. Well, you know, obviously you have the heart for doing this, because to commit four years of your life to anything, you know, and that kind of gets at this — this big idea that I wanted to hit about being persistent in the work that God calls you to do. So, I know that there are going to be people out there who are saying, “Oh my gosh. I cannot focus like that. If God called me to, I don't know what I would say, you know, if He, if He asked me to commit like that.” So, having done this project, would you say that you were, before this, would consider yourself a persistent person? And what would you say to somebody who says, “Well, I'm not a persistent person now. I can't do that kind of work.”

Parr

I am definitely not a persistent person. I took singing lessons for, I don't know, a week. Then I thought, yeah, I'm not getting this. Same thing with, like, martial arts when I was a kid. Same thing with, like, my wife was trying to teach me guitar. If I can't pick it up pretty quickly and become pretty proficient at it, I'm going to drop it and move on to the next thing. That's just not how I am wired. But when I find something that I have a knack for, then I can dig into it. And I think that's what God knew that I had, right? I've been blessed by being able to do radio and voiceovers for a number of years. And God saw that I enjoy that type of work, so He thought, “Okay, here's something I can use in this guy to accomplish my purposes.” So, I — I'm not persistent by nature. But I think when, you know, God leads you to do something, He calls you in a area where — an area where you're already maybe good at, and then He equips you to accomplish the purposes that He has.

Thibodeaux

Sure. Well, I know sometimes we can feel like we can get through it and we can persist, but as we kind of touched on a little bit earlier, in terms of, you know, whether or not you had kind of done this kind of translation before, you had mentioned in the preinterview, you know that you did not really have, like, the quote, scholarly background before you started translating. So, I know that there are going to be people with that kind of background that's — kind of step back and say, you know, “Whoa. Maybe we shouldn't look at this translation.” But I kind of see like, OK, well, if God is moving on your heart to say this, like, most of you — if the prophets and the people that God called, like, they did not have experience in what they were called to do, right? So, what would you say to the people who are out there in their careers or a job and they want to move up, they want to do something long term, like you did, and yet, people are telling them, “Well, you're not qualified. You can't do that because X, Y and Z, and you have to do X, Y and Z first.” What would you say to that?

Thibodeaux

Yeah. Well, I mean, there's wisdom in many counselors, right? So, I would say, you know, listen to what they say. Take it in. Pray about what they say,. And what is God telling you, and what is God affirming to you through His Word? So, take in what they say. Because, you know, some of it might be valid. Some of it might be rubbish.

Thibodeaux

Yeah.

Parr

That's where discernment comes in and why we need to be in the Word and in prayer. For me, I thought, “I don't have, you know, the background to do this, God, from a, you know, a divinity or a seminary background.” But He gently reminded me, when He started the message of spreading the gospel, He didn't go to the rabbis. He chose a bunch of fishermen and a tax collector, and He thought, “If I use them, and it went pretty well, don't you think I can use you, too?” And again, it comes back to His sovereignty. “Yeah, I guess You can.” So, I would just, you know, encourage them to spend time with God. Get a clear message from Him. If you are serious about doing something, you know, make it a — make it a priority in prayer. And He will certainly answer you. Maybe not in your timeline that you expect —

Thibodeaux

Yeah

Parr

— but He will make things clear.

Thibodeaux

Yeah. Well, in terms of clarity, I think sometimes, you know, it's natural to look for — to other people for like, what we should do. So, again, you know, I really want to clarify, like, I'm not saying, you know, that — to just disregard what the standards are. But I do think that God can create new paths, and that if He's telling you to go on a different path and take a nontraditional route, then He knows what He's doing, and that's okay to listen to Him, rather than the way that people, you know, the status quo of getting things done, because He certainly knows the path that you're supposed to take on that. I agree.

Parr

Actu — absolutely. I mean, He makes streams in the desert, right? So, He's just saying that, you know, “I can choose to do something one way one time, but the next time I'm gonna do it a different way.” And so, that's why you just have to be open and in tune with the Spirit through Bible study and through prayer to to pick up on where, which way He's leading you.

Thibodeaux

Yeah. So, when you talk about picking up on things, was there ever a moment when you were translating where you just kind of had an aha moment, like, kind of a revelation for yourself?

Parr

Yes. So, as I went through — I had a lot of trepidation about doing the Old Testament, right, because I don't spend a lot of time in the Old Testament, save for Proverbs, Genesis, and Psalms. The rest of the books, I don't spend a lot of time in, honestly. But yet, there's so much beauty in the Old Testament. And as I went through this, I just began to see the love of God through every book. It becomes very clear that He continues to reach out to us time and time again. From the first two people, Adam and Eve, they turn their back on God. He goes back to them. He extends to them a path back to Himself. And we see that throughout the Old Testament. You know, the Hebrews, the Israelites, they turned away from God. He continues to draw them back to Himself. So, from Genesis to Revelation, it just became very clear to me the love of God and how much He wants to have a relationship with us, and the great extremes He'll go to to pursue us.

Thibodeaux

I love that you brought that up because I had a pastor in one of the churches that I had gone to, and he made the point that if you really wanna know God, you can't pick or — pick and choose and cherry pick the scriptures that — to read. I mean, a lot of people, you know, when they're just kind of starting out, that's what they do. They kind of say, what is this right? And they look at the Bible that way. But to see the entire story, from start to finish, from Genesis to Revelation, I think that does change your view of God. Because if you don't do that, you don't get the understanding of His consistency about how loving He is through everything. You know, if you — if you read some of those stories, it's like, “Oh my gosh, God is angry, so angry all the time,” right? But that's — you know, and you start to learn, if you read the entire thing about, why was He upset? Why was that a pattern, right? And so you really do need to expand a little bit. So, this idea that you got that insight from looking at the whole thing, I think, is something that we can take away, you know, for the other listeners.

Parr

Yeah. So, He continues to reveal Himself, right, even now as I go back through the Bible. And you know, I've read through the Bible, you know, many times before going through this. But even now, as I go through it, He continues to reveal new things. And He'll just continue to do that as long as you, you know, seek Him and you get to know Him more. So, yes, there's definitely value and — and reading those books that you don't normally read, because a lot of times God will speak to you through those, too.

Thibodeaux

Yeah. Well, obviously, you know, we had touched on a little bit earlier, too, you know, where you just started with Luke, and then you kind of kept going. So, has persisting in this project kind of changed your view of being open to new things and looking at things, like, more of a big picture for what you'll take on?

Parr

Yes. So, what I learned through this is, don't tell God no.

Thibodeaux

He won't take it anyway.

Parr

Exactly, right. All my protesting, it did nothing but waste time and make me miserable. If I would just say yes earlier on and just say, “OK. This is Your show. I'm just a player in it,” instead of trying to make Him a player in my show, life just goes so much better, right, if I realize that He's the star and I'm just a participant and just do what He leads me to do, it will just save me so much heartache and frustration.

Thibodeaux

Yeah, it kind of reminds me of Jonah, you know, like, if he just would have listened the first time, he wouldn't have had to deal with the whale. You know, like, so I do, I do get that, you know. But sometimes we are stubborn. We are just stubborn people, and we don't want to listen the first time. So, that being said, what do you think — maybe a little bit more personal question — but what do you think kind of gave you that inkling of, I don't want to like, what was, what was kind of pushing you away, like, what was causing that resistance at first?

Parr

Oh, self doubt and fear, right? So, I — I — I didn't think I had the ability to do it. I didn't necessarily have the desire to complete such a large project. And again, that goes back to just because I didn't think that I could and I didn't think that — I didn't think that I was qualified. I didn't know if anybody was even going to listen to this, because who am I that they would listen to me read the Bible. But obviously, God sees things that I don't, and God knows much more than I do. So, you know, just leaning into Him and trusting Him and getting out of the boat and starting to walk on the water, but keeping your focus on Christ, you can see some pretty amazing things happen.

Thibodeaux

Yeah, anytime anybody says that to me, like, “Who am I?”, right, that automatically brings to my mind Moses. Right? You know, and he's standing there by the burning bush. “Who am I, Lord, to go to Egypt?” Right? But God knew. God knew what was gonna happen, and like you're saying, he saw in Moses what was possible, but He also knew God's own ability. That's why He's continued to send Moses, because He's like, “You don't have to be the one to come up with the words. I will give them to you. You don't have to trust in yourself. You have to trust in Me. I will do it through you.” So, I think that's something to learn, too, is that even when you feel like you can't, He always can.

Thibodeaux

So, when you talk about your skills, I'm kind of wondering, you know, what did God reveal to you as you're doing this part — now, obviously, I mean, you are an excellent voiceover talent, so you kind of were already a little pre-prepared to do the job. But was there any skills that he kind of revealed to you through the project that you didn't know you had, that you were equipped and you didn't know it?

Parr

I think, well, one being the persistence that I didn't know that I had, but again, He put me in something that I enjoyed. So, persistence just kind of came naturally in that way.

Thibodeaux

OK.

Parr

And I think, just the ability to take text and simplify it, I found out that that's actually a skill, as well. Because you want to maintain what the author's intent is, but yet, still put it in a way where people are going to be able to comprehend what's being said without trying to overexplain it, as well, right? I don't want to take three paragraphs to explain, you know, what a cubit is. Instead, I just want to make it as simple as possible so they can get it and move on to the next verse.

Thibodeaux.

Right.

Parr

I think — I think just being able to prepare the text that way.

Thibodeaux

Yeah, so I know, you know, like for myself, you know, doing projects like that, I have certainly had that experience where I did not feel qualified. I — and I kind of just discovered things about myself. Like, even doing the podcast now, I'm like, I've had people tell me, like, you know, you're a pretty good speaker. I'm like, “No. No, I'm not.” Like, I'm still trying to kind of accept that that's a skill that, okay, maybe, maybe God knows what He's doing, you know. But you know, you — you had that voiceover talent ahead. And I think sometimes — I talk about it sometimes as, you know, the — the stones for David. And I think sometimes God knows what stones you have to pick up. He knows exactly where they are on the ground. And He puts them for you, and He prepares you to fight — to fight Goliath. You don't know you're being prepared that way, but then you get to Goliath, and you're like, “I know exactly what to do,” and you didn't even know it, right? I think He works —

Parr

I love that.

Thibodeaux

— like that a lot.

Parr

I love that. And the way David just ran towards Goliath, right?

Thibodeaux

Yeah.

Parr

I think I'd have been a little bit more cautious walking up to him myself. But like you said, he had such confidence in God and what God had put in him and prepared for him that he knew that he could run towards God, because ultimately it was going to be God fighting the battle and guiding the sling and guiding the stone. So, yeah, I — I think that's great. It's beautiful. Just saying, “Okay, well, here's what I can bring.Do with it what You can.”

Thibodeaux

Yeah. You know, it's just a little bit more on that too. You know, for my own writing, you know, I — I have been writing for — ever since I was, like, itty bitty, smaller than I am now. You know, so, I can't remember a time when I didn't do that. But I didn't really start writing with, like, a Christian focus, really, until, like, this last three years. And if I wouldn't have done all of that previous writing, if I wouldn't have done, you know, like, my business experience, I would not have been equipped to write the way for God that I do now. So, there might be something, you know, where God was like, “Okay, well, I know you're going to do this recording. Dan. I know it. But I'm going to equip you. I'm going to train you. I'm going to have you do all these other little voiceover projects so that when you get to this big one, you're perfect. You know exactly what to do for me.”

Parr

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I started working in radio when I was 14, right? So, I did that for a number of years at a number of stations, and then I even worked at a television station on air as a talent. So, it just kind of got me comfortable speaking in front of people. Now, you know, it's different for me speaking in front of a microphone or speaking in front of a camera than it is speaking in front of 500 people.

Thibodeaux

Oh, yes.

Parr

But — but, you know, God has prepared me to do exactly what I'm doing now. So, I can — I can totally get what you're saying. Yeah, He takes steps to prepare you, and you have no idea what's going to be coming down the pipe later.

Thibodeaux

Well, I kind of bring that up because I think so often in the business space, that is the message. You've gotta plan well. You've gotta know the steps. And I'm like, no. God does. God has to know the steps. And He always does. We can try, you know, — the — we can plan. But He takes this — He plans our steps. So, I — I have never — I'm — I’m getting to the point now where I try to plan less and just have Him take a little bit more of that control, because I — so many times it's kind of like, fallen by the wayside. Life has happened, and I had a plan. I knew what I was gonna do, and then it didn't. Right? So, I think He knows what stones we have to pick up for what purpose, even if we thought we were gonna go in a different direction. We had that planned out, but He'll walk us where we need to go.

Parr

Absolutely. So, it's that whole thing of coming to God with just your hand out, but you're holding on to whatever it is loosely, knowing that He can change whatever it is. You know, the Bible tells us, know the condition of your flocks. So, know where you're strong. Know what needs to be done. Know what is — you think is going to happen or what you expect to happen. But hold on to all that loosely, because God can take you in a completely different pattern. So, you know, I — I can't get so focused on doing things my way that I miss out on what God wants to do in another way.

Thibodeaux

Well, within that, though, obviously this was a huge project that required that persistence that we've been talking about. So, sometimes, though, we don't always know if we are on that path that He wants us to take. You know, we're persisting in it, and yet, so — we're getting so many outside signals that you — that we should stop, right, or it's maybe not the right thing, and maybe we feel it inside, “I need to keep going,” but those aren't the signals that we're getting from the world. So, what would you say to kind of navigate that tension where you — you feel it in yourself, you know that you should move forward, but there's no other signal to keep going, and God's kind of quiet?

Parr

Yeah. So, for me, I had to think, “Am I doing this for my glory or for God's?” Right? So, who's getting the glory from this? And if it's just me, it's probably a good indication that it's not God leading me to do it, right? I don't need the glory. The — all the glory should go to Him. So, as I go through things, I think about, “OK, is this for me, or is it really more about God?”, and just being open to have an honest conversation with yourself about that. I'm very introspective, so I'm always questioning my motives about things.

Thibodeaux

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Parr

So — and I bring that to God. It's like, “You know, God, I want this project to be a success, because it will be good for me and my family. However, I recognize the most important thing is that You get glory from it, and people get to know You from it.” So, I would just say, you know, examine your motives. See who's really getting the glory at the end of the day, and just continue to have that open conversation with God, and let Him lead you as He will.

Thibodeaux

Yeah. So, since you brought up this word success, all right, now, you and I, as people who have done the publishing and we — we work with words, we understand that one of the biggest things that as writers or publishers, that we look for is, we are looking for sales just like any other you know, person in the business space. And so we are always looking for, you know, how many books have you sold? But in a project like this, it's like you're saying you're giving Him glory. So, how exactly are you, you know, what metrics are you using? Or are you using metrics at all to — are you even looking at your numbers? Like, does that matter, like, with something like this?

Parr

You know, early on, when I was doing this, I was checking numbers all the time, like, on a daily basis. And I had to get to the point where it's like, you know what? That's not — my job — sales are God's job. My job is the content creation, and I'm going to do my job to the best of my abilities and trust Him to handle the back end, because He can do it much better than I can anyway. So, I quit looking at numbers, and I got to the point where I would look at them once a month, at the end of the month —

Thibodeaux

OK.

Parr

Thibodeaux

Right.

Parr

If He wants it to be a success and, you know, sell a billion copies, fantastic. Or if He wants it to sell, you know, 100 copies, OK. It's all about whatever He wants. And I told Him early on, “You know, if it's a — if it's a choice between earthly rewards or heavenly rewards, I'll take the heavenly rewards —

Thibodeaux

Yeah.

Parr

— because I know that's for eternity,” right?

Thibodeaux

Yeah

Parr

So, again, you know, it's just me trying to stay in my lane and do what I'm called to do and let God do what He knows is best.

Thibodeaux

Sure. So, you know, kind of to get back to that audience idea when we're talking about success, if we are talking about people really connecting to God, and that is the definition of success, if you had people pick up your Bible and kind of, you know, they're starting to go through it, what would you want them to get from that experience with your Bible?

Parr

You know, I've been very blessed, and that God has thrown me a couple of breadcrumbs along the way to keep me encouraged and going. I've had a couple of reviews come up on Audible where this one man said that he grew up in the church, grew up with King James Version, but when he got out of his parents household, got away from the church, got away from reading the Bible, started dabbling in New Age. And he said he read over 50 New Age books. And then he happened to see the Gospel of John that I did, and he gave it a go. And he said, “Now I get it. Now I understand.” And he's redevoted his life to Christ because of something that I put out there. And there was another lady who had a very similar story. Grew up with the King James Version, didn't really understand it. But she came across another gospel that I had done, and she says, “Okay, this is something that speaks to me.”

Thibodeaux

Sure.

Parr

So, God gave me those as encouragement to keep going. So, even if I don't hear any more, I know that the work is going out and that lives are being transformed by it. And for me, you know that's — that's — that's the success that I need.

Thibodeaux

Yeah, well, I know for me, especially being in the Christian space and working in that area, you know, so we don't always get the big numbers that everybody else does. So, I really have been trying to focus myself, you know, that story of the starfish? Well, it matters to that one.

Parr

Right.

Thibodeaux

Right? So, it doesn't — it doesn’t matter if you save one person. That matters to God. Like, maybe he's assigned you that one person, just that one. Maybe you don't — because we always think about, like, well, success is — is that big net full of fish? Right? I'm like, well, maybe He just wants you to have your fishing line. He doesn't even want you to use the net at all. So, whatever you're doing, He knows exactly what your voice is for, right? And I think your literal voice is catching the fish as it needs to. Right?

Thibodeaux

But that does bring me to — another question that I wanted to ask you is, because you are doing this as a voiceover talent, have you had the experience that, as you were working on this, you kind of had epiphanies listening or speaking the Word versus just reading it?

Parr

You know, when I'm doing the — when I'm doing the narration, I become so immersed in the story, I feel like I am there. So, for me, it really just set me in the scene, more so than before. Because you know, when you — when you record something, you don't just record it once and you're done right? You record it once. You go through, you take out the breaths, all the ooo’s, ah’s, the mistakes. And then you have to rerecord portions, because you said something wrong. And then you have to go back and make sure that what you said lines up with the text that's actually on the paper. So, you're going through it multiple times, not just once. So, because of that, you know, I just really got enmeshed in the story. And it was great to feel like, you know what, David's part of my family. I'm related to David. So, it was pretty cool just to — just to have that, like, you know, the patriarchs, they're my ancestors. I'm part of their line. So, just having that experience of just realizing that, you know, I'm just telling my family story here, that was pretty cool.

Thibodeaux

That's — that's really awesome. I — because I think we all — we all are all part of God's legacy, right? And so, when I use that word and you're thinking about your translation, do you think that this will be as evergreen as maybe some of the other translations? Or do you hope that that's going to be the case?

Parr

You know, certainly I hope so, you know, for my sake and for the Gospel’s sake, right? God doesn't need this translation, but for whatever reason, He's allowed me to produce it and come out with this version. So, yes, you know, I want it to go on forever. I wanna be as as prevalent as the King James Version, right?

Thibodeaux

Yeah.

Parr

But again, it's holding those things loosely, if God chooses to use it for this season, and then it doesn't get used anymore, OK. Because maybe it was only meant to reach, you know, X number of people, and then God has a new plan. So, you know, whatever He wants to do, it's fine. But I know for right now, this is the season that I'm in, and what I'm supposed to do, and I'm just called to be faithful to today, to this season. And then beyond that, it's — it's in God's hands.

Thibodeaux

Yeah, well, I know in my own work, going back to that stones idea, you don't know what the project that you just finished is going to be a stepping stone to the next one. So, I'm guessing now that you have done this, and you have immersed yourself in this for four years that you're gonna get handed other pro — projects, and you're going to have light bulbs go off all over the place, because you understand it differently now than you would have four years ago. And those projects are gonna be different, and they're going to be different, you know, different levels of accessibility that wouldn't have been there if you had not done this project. So, even though you might say, “Oh, well, the Bible, that's the end of what I, you know, that's the big fish that I was, you know, going to do my projects for.” Maybe it is just another stepping stone to help people understand it in many other branches. You never know.

Parr

You know, and the funny thing about that, Wanda, is that as soon as I finished, all these ideas came to me. Well, what about a Bible in a year? Oh, yeah, that's a good idea. Do a Bible in a year. Well, what if you do a Bible in a year that doesn't just start in January, but you have one start every month of the year, so no matter what month it is, somebody can pick it up and go through the Bible in a year and still keep on track, and then the chronological Bible, right?

Thibodeaux

Yep.

Parr

So, that — God's put out there. And now, you know, I have a Gen Z son, and so, you know, I have a — and —have concerns for and love for that generation. So, I've got a Gen Z devotional that I'm working on.

Thibodeaux

Awesome.

Parr

So, I get what you're saying. God continues to just spark ideas. And, you know, as long as He continues to provide, I'll continue to create this content.

Thibodeaux

Yeah, well, while we are talking about your content, and we're kind of wrapping up here, is there anywhere that our listeners can go to learn more about you and the work that you're doing?

Parr

Yes. I would direct them to audible.com. Everything I've done is on Audible.

Thibodeaux

OK.

Parr

If they want the audiobooks, if they want to, you know, peruse the ebooks, go to amazon.com. So, if they type in Dan Parr Bible, everything I've done will pop up there for them.

Thibodeaux

Perfect. And I will make sure that there are links for everything in the show notes, so that it's very easy to connect with you and your work if they want to.

But do you mind as we wrap up, if I pray for you, I try to do that for all my guests.

Parr

I would love that.

Thibodeaux

Okay. Thank you.

Thibodeaux

Lord, as we look at the work that Dan is doing, he very much values You. He very much values Your word, and even though he is trying to keep things simple, he wants that balance between the meaning of what You are saying and that accessibility to You, because when they accept, when they access Your word, they can reach You. So, this work that he is doing is incredibly important, and I ask that You guide him, share whatever words that he's gonna need to keep the meaning and help people understand all of Your power and glory. And protect him in whatever that he is going to come up with, with new projects, and make those fruitful. In Jesus name, amen.

Parr

Amen. Thank you so much, Wanda, it's been a great conversation, you know, coming out of a corporate 500 background —

Thibodeaux

Sure

Parr

— and being a believer as well, it's — it's great to marry those two things up and have a discussion like this?

Thibodeaux

Yeah. Well, that is what the show is all about, making sure that there is no conflict between your work and your faith. That's what I'm about. So, I appreciate your time very much. Thank you.

Parr

Thanks, Wanda.

Thibodeaux

Thank you.

Thibodeaux

After chatting with Dan, I gotta be honest — I’m feeling pretty convicted about all the long-term projects that I’ve been, you know, shoving to the back burner. I got a lot of them. And I hope you feel the same little spark or push to commit for a while to make something good happen. In our next show, we’re gonna stick with this idea of patience and persistence a bit. We all want those great rewards to come eventually, but what happens if you work hard and the results just don’t come? While you wait for that, get some encouragement for every week of the year and buy your copy of Grace in the Grind: 52 Devotions for Thriving in the Workplace, available on Amazon and at most major retailers. Happy reading, everybody, and until next time, be blessed.