What if the nudge you’ve been ignoring is the doorway to your real life? We sit down with Dan Parr, a Nashville-based voice actor who never planned to touch Scripture—until corporate downsizing, a few well-timed affirmations, and a stubborn whisper from God pushed him to create an easy-to-understand Bible for people who feel shut out by religious language.
Dan’s story begins quietly and moves with purpose. A neighbor’s generosity after a flood softened his heart years before a life-group leader’s comment sparked a simple Facebook reading of Luke. That one act grew into a full translation recorded for Audible, built on a solid textual foundation yet reworded for clarity so first-time readers can meet Jesus without stumbling over archaic phrasing. Dan isn’t a seminary scholar, and that’s the point—God equips the called, often by repurposing the skills we already carry.
If you’ve been burned by church but drawn to Jesus, this conversation is for you. We cover practical faith rhythms, the craft of clear Bible translation, grief and healing, and the stubborn kindness of a God who won’t stop knocking. Listen, share it with a friend who needs hope, and if it resonates, subscribe and leave a quick review to help more seekers find their way here.
If you want to connect with Dan Parr, do so on LinkedIn. If you want to purchase his version of the Bible, titled: The Holy Bible: The Easy to Understand Read Version is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Audible or go to https://www.audible.com/author/Dan-Parr/
To download a free chapter of host Sylvia Worsham’s bestselling book, In Faith, I Thrive: Finding Joy Through God’s Masterplan, purchase any of her products, or book a call with her, visit her website at www.sylviaworsham.com
Transcript:
If you’ve ever struggled with fear and doubt or worry and wondering what your true purpose was all about, then this podcast is for you. In this show, your host, Sylvia Warsham, will interview elite experts and ordinary people that have created extraordinary lives. So here’s your host, Sylvia Warsham.
Hey light bringers, it’s Sylvia Warsham. Welcome to Release Dat Reveal Purpose. And today’s Ben Park. When I read his PodMatch requests, I started to look at his profile and I was really curious because he said, I wrote a Bible. And I’m like, what? Like you wrote a Bible? I I find that intriguing. You know, and I was very, very curious. And it’s always good to be a curious host because that leads to the most innovative and really profound conversations I find. And so I really wanted to invite him on the show. So without further ado, thank you so much, Dan, for joining us on Release Staff Review Purpose.
It is my pleasure to be here. Thanks so much for accepting and allowing me to be on, Sylvia.
I love the fact that you’re from Nashville, because I love Nashville. I think Nashville is like, I mean, I’m in Austin, so I’m in the other musical capital of Texas, and you’re in the musical capital of Tennessee, right? So it’s always it’s always nice to to go back and forth between Nashville and Austin because there’s just so much music and so much joy to be had in both these cities. And when we were there, uh middle of September, my husband and I were celebrating 12 years of being married to each other. And it was my gift to him. I just wanted, I I can’t make him laugh because I’m this serious, profound person, you know, and he loves to laugh. And so I figured, well, why don’t I just find a comedy show? And Joe Coy happened to be in Nashville, and I thought, you know what? I really like Joe Coy, and I like all his Netflix specials. So I’m going to go ahead and get those tickets. And I was so glad we did that because we laughed so hard that our face hurt for like the next thing. I was like, my whole body, my whole face is hurting, but that’s awesome to feel like that. So I love the fact that you hail from Nashville. I know you have a very interesting story of transformation to land in the purpose of writing a Bible. So without further ado, why don’t you lead us in that discussion?
Well, yeah, I’ll uh I’ll kind of start way back uh before I was born, if that’s okay. Um, when my mom was pregnant, she was in a very dark place. She had been suffering from these terrible migraine headaches and really could only get relief through these strong drugs that her uh doctor prescribed to her. Now, she had been taking these for a while and she becomes pregnant, and she was very concerned. Uh, so she went to her doctor and said, You know, what’s going to happen to my baby now that I’m on all these drugs and have been for a while? And instead of reassuring her, he uh basically confirmed her worst fears. He basically said, Juanita, these come with a whole host of side effects, including birth defects. Um, there’s going to be some sort of issue with your child, um, you know, developmental issue or physical issue or what have you. And so he recommended that she get an abortion, not have to deal with that. And, you know, like any mother, she was devastated by that news. So she went home and uh she and my father started praying, and they landed at the place where, well, if she became pregnant, it’s because God wanted her to be pregnant, and there’s a reason for this birth. So, special needs or not, they’re going to bring it to term and allow me to be born. So they did that, and uh I was born, they checked me over, I had all my fingers, all my toes, they watched over the next several months, and I was developing normally. So she told me that story when I was old enough to understand, and ever since then, Sylvia, I’ve realized, well, if he spared me, he must have spared me for a purpose, right? There has to have some reason behind all of this, that I had no issues whatsoever, despite the different drugs she was on. Uh so I just saw that as kind of miraculous, and I thought, okay, there’s a reason for it. However, uh, I didn’t get busy into finding that reason for a number of years. And, you know, like many people, I uh I grew up in a church and then I was away for a while. So that’s kind of where I started at. Um it’s just I knew God had a reason for me, I knew he had a purpose, but uh once I got out of church at a young age, I really wasn’t interested in pursuing him, so to speak. So that’s it.
I find that I find interesting uh similarities between your story and mine. There’s always an alignment piece, and that’s what leads us to be interconnected one with the other. We have God, uh the Holy Spirit within us. And uh and I find it interesting that we all start off the same way with some something that triggers our first act. Um and in my first act, I ended up in a space that I was never meant to end up in corporate America, right? And very young, uh, marrying in my early 20s. I had daddy issues, and I’ll come to that in a minute. But um major trauma with my father when I was seven, and that kind of led to a lot of things. Being bullied in high school led to me not believing I was beautiful enough to be um asked again. So when the first person asked me to marry him, I say yes, I’m not really in love with him. Um, and weeks before the wedding, we have this massive fight. We break up, and my mom’s like, You this guy’s not for you. And I, because I have belief systems that are um impacting my thoughts and my feelings about myself and the way I viewed myself, my identity, I am not rooted in my faith, even though I’m Catholic, I’m still very young, very stubborn, and I go through with it, even though I’m walking down the aisle, and the Holy Spirit’s saying, This is not for you. Please turn around. I walk and I don’t listen because my belief of not being beautiful or not being enough is is propelling me forward. And while being married to him, I too, like you, turned away. Yeah, I turned away from him because we would go to Catholic Church, and the hypocrisy I experienced in my own home with my first husband, he would put on this show for the church people. And the minute we stepped out of that church, it was like Jekyll and Hyde. And very different. And when you live with that, you you tend, and I was young and inexperienced in spiritual matters, you blame God because you you associate God with religion. And when you think of Jesus and his ministry, and you read scripture and the gospel, that’s why we say that’s the good news, because it’s an upside-down kingdom. Religion is not something he preached about. In fact, he went against the Pharisees. That’s right.
That’s right.
That’s who put them to death. It wasn’t the Romans, the Romans were just over the joy of the people, the hand that actually, you know, the judge basically, uh, that handed over the, like in that case, the judge that handed over the divorce. But the one that initiated proceedings was my ex-husband, right? And so the ex-husband here is the Pharisees. They initiated his death, they put him to death, right? They found a reason. And and Jesus was someone that was very much against organized religion. He wanted the gospel to be known so that people could be saved, but he didn’t mean for all these religions to come about and tell people all these rules, these men-made rules. And when you read his gospel, you understand that he was totally against this. So the ideas that people have about him are totally wrong. They’re upside down, basically, because it’s Jesus came an upside down kingdom, because it’s totally different than what the religions teach us. I’m assuming there’s more to your story. So please continue.
Yeah, so like you, I was out of the church for a while, right? Um, during my early teenage years, we were completely out of the church, and then something funny happened. We had a flood. Um, the whole neighborhood got flooded. And uh we had been out of the church for a while, but yet these people from the church just came by our house one couple days after the flood and gave my parents uh significant cash contribution, and that stuck with me. I thought it’s so weird that they would do that. It’s like, why are you doing this? We don’t go to your church anymore, we haven’t been there for years. Why would you stop by and give them cash? Um, but they did, so that left an impact on me. And so a few years later, I’m 18, got my own little side hustle doing video work for companies, and uh I get this job and it pays me a hundred bucks. And I think I’m doing pretty good, don’t need a hundred bucks right now. And for some reason, Sylvia, the thought came to me, why don’t you give that to a church just as your way of saying thanks for what you guys did several years ago? So I thought, okay, I can do that. But my plan was I was just going to slip in the back of the church in the service, offering plate comes by, drop in the hundred bucks, scoot out the back as soon as the plate passes my row. So that was the plan. Uh, but I get dressed up on a Sunday morning and my sister sees me and she’s like, Where are you going? I said, Well, I’m gonna go to church real quick. And she says, Huh, hang on, I’ll go with you. And I thought, ah, dang it, I didn’t want that, because now I have to stay for the whole service because she’s gonna be there. So I uh I go to church, give the money, everything’s good, right? Stay for the whole thing. We come back home, and wouldn’t you know it? Our neighbors are over. And they said, Oh, we understand you guys went to church today. It’s like, yeah, we did. I said, Oh, good, we’ll go with you next week. It’s like so now I’m on the hook for another week. So uh I go back the next week, and God just continued to pull me back one way or another, right? But the transformation for me, like you are explaining, happened when I actually started reading the Bible for myself and understanding what Jesus said versus what I thought he said based on the actions of others within the church.
Right.
And that’s where the light bulb started going off. I read the Bible and it was transformative, it did a work in me. Suddenly I uh had different desires, right? Um and I saw myself. I think I tell people the Bible reads you as much as you read it, right? Because if you read it long enough, you’re gonna say, Oh, I see myself here, right? And uh I can see the ending of some of these people, how it went for them living their lives away from God, and it’s not good. So I recognize then that you know I needed to change my life, I needed to have Jesus in my life to guide and direct my thoughts and my actions. So uh I did that and was in the church, uh reading the Bible, being a good Christian, all that for a number of years. And uh actually it’s just a few years ago I got corporate downsized. You mentioned you were in corporate America and I was as well. Um I was a victim of corporate downsizing. And the funny thing is, is it didn’t necessarily freak me out. Uh I think God had been preparing me for it. And so when I got to that point, it’s like, okay, now what? And in his own unique way, he just kind of started leading me and guiding me through some other interests and hobbies that I had until uh I landed on, I think I’m supposed to come out with a new version of the Bible. Now, there’s of course much more to the story, but uh that’s that’s kind of how it all got started. It’s God kind of directing my path, these divine detours, if you will, uh leading me back to him.
He does that, then he oh yeah, he does. He does that, and it’s not in an odd way, it’s in the way that you need to hear it and you need to understand it because he created you and he knows you well. He’s seen everything, he’s seen all the rooms, all the experiences, all the letdowns, all of it. And that’s why he knows exactly what you need to do, exactly what he needs to tell you and reveal to you for you to have the aha moment and you continue on that path.
Yeah, he did the same thing to me. It’s it’s funny because for years I had worked in radio and we had a side uh gig doing voiceovers, right? We still do voiceovers, that’s our primary income. But uh, my wife and I both do it, and so he used that experience to kind of direct my path. He was like, Okay, I know you like doing radio, I know you like doing voiceovers. Here’s something you can do for me. And you know, when the thought came to me of doing the Bible, it’s like, oh no, thanks. That’s way too much work. I don’t want to do that. Uh, but yeah, as you know, God is persistent, and uh despite all my uh reluctance, I think he was just amused by it and said, No, this is what you’re going to do. And he uh, you know, it wasn’t in a mean way, it’s in a loving way, because he knew what was best for me. Yeah, and so he kind of led me down this path. And once I finally gave into that, just like, oh, you know, why did I fight it for so long? You know, why didn’t I just listen to him to begin with? Oh, yeah. That’s what it was like for me.
And that’s it was the same for me too. The awakening from you is a near death, like not truly near death, because the the technical or scientific term of it, near death, is you clinically die and go to heaven and come back to tell the story. What I had was something like an 80% chance of dying, and the doctors telling my parents, um, my entire family were doctors. My mother, my mother’s not a doctor, my father, um, may he rest in peace, was, and my brother and sister. So the doctors in Houston consulted with my family and said, this girl will likely die um on Saturday of Easter weekend. And so we don’t, we don’t have, we really don’t have any faith that she’ll survive the night. Um, I had what was known as Bud Carey syndrome due to taking breast control pills, and that is a beautiful symptom, like a beautiful word to describe a deadly symptom like this. So it’s basically a blood clot that clots up your vena cava. And the vena cava, for those that don’t know, is the main vein that takes blood from your organs to get reoxygenated, you know, out of your organs and circulate it. So what was happening was this massive blood clot was clotting it, and there was a very thin line of blood that was able to get through. It was putting pressure on my liver, and I was about to go into acute liver failure. And on top of that, I had walked into the emergency department the night before or the day before with multiple pulmonary embolisms. And I had taken a flight from South Texas to Houston with embolisms in my system and did not die. And that night he jolted me awake in the hotel room. Luckily, we had spent the night there because when my boyfriend now husband took one look at me and I looked so pale, he was like, I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to go drive overnight to Louisiana to go to Easter, you know, crawfish boil, right, for Good Friday. And I’m like, well, I don’t think so either. I don’t let’s just stick around Texas. And I had my little boy with me. Um and and I got jolted out of bed at three o’clock in the morning, and the Holy Spirit was like, lean forward and you’ll be able to breathe. And so I leaned over for four hours. I don’t call a soul because the day before I got on the flight, I had called my brother and I had told him that I had was having chest pain every time I took a breath, and he was like, eh, it’s probably something else, you know, didn’t think it was pulmonary embolism, and gave me ibuprofen to take, you know, at very high doses because it’s the what he diagnosed me with um was pleurisy, which is mimics the same symptoms as pulmonary embolism. It’s the inflammation of the lining of the lung, it’s really painful, and young people get it a lot, it’s very common. And so he was like, Oh, you’re in great shape, you know, I was exercising seven days a week, I was in the prime of my life, young mother, you know, the whole nine yards. And he had taken the consultation over the phone. He didn’t see me. If he had seen me, I think he would have thought something different. But I took the flight, didn’t die. I jumped up out of bed, was leaning forward, didn’t call soul for four hours there to, you know, from three to seven in the morning, eight o’clock rolls around, I must have fallen asleep, sitting up, thank God. Um, bless him. Donnie comes in and and and he and I tell him, you know, I just don’t think this is what my brother diagnosed me with. I I need to call him and tell him like what happened last night. And he, you know, my boyfriend slash husband now was furious. He’s like, How did you not call me? I’m like, I just you know, I took my husband, my brother’s word for it. It’s painful. I, you know, but but that persistence that you were talking about, like, God is super persistent. Like, I don’t know, you’re gonna stay obedient to me. And so I get admitted, and when they find this massive thing that of Saturday of Easter weekend, um, I need a miracle. I mean, I need like major miracle to get past this because the doctors were very reluctant to say I was gonna survive. I really need a miracle, because the next step would have been something rather interventional that would have likely resulted in my death. So the next day, which was Easter Sunday morning or resurrection day for us Christians, um the woman with the Catholic diocese walks in because at the time I was a Catholic when I walked into the hospital. Of course, they take all that information down. She’s like, Hey, do you want to pray with me? I’m like, Oh, yes, I do. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. They had given me this massive drug, it was supposed to work, they don’t know. Yeah, all these things are all these unknowns. And and Donnie was in the room, we form a circle and we start saying the the Lord’s Prayer. And halfway through, this massive love, like there was there was a peace that washed over me, and I felt like I was being carried by God Himself, like Jesus Christ was just holding me like a baby. If I get emotional, I apologize, but it’s it’s still emotional, even all these years later. It’s been 13 years since then. But the love, I’ve never been able to truly give it merit in words. I I wrote a book titled In Faith I Thrive, Finding Joy through God’s Master Plan. This is chapter eight, it’s my free chapter on my website, if anybody wants to hear the full story. But long story short, the miracle comes through. I know that I’ve been saved. I’ve been gifted my second chance. And now, like you, when you were a baby and found or a young kid finding out that your mother was told to abort you, and there was a powerful reason why you were born perfectly. I start to understand there’s a powerful reason why I survived. Why did I receive three miracles in 72 hours? When so many people get one pulmonary embolism and they die, you know. So why did I survive? Right? I obviously stayed obedient to him and moved bored to breathe because the doctor later explained that saved your life. How did I not to do that? I didn’t. That was the Holy Spirit guiding me, and I was just staying obedient to him. At that point, my relationship with God, it was stronger after my divorce. I went back because the hypocrisy was no longer in my home. I wasn’t living with it anymore. And I my soul felt a pull to get to know him again. Kind of like what he did with you, where it was like one little example, like one little seed, and then that seed grows and grows. And that’s why he says the mustard seed of faith.
That’s right.
That’s that’s the whole concept of that. Go ahead.
Yeah, no, it’s it’s funny because you know, uh, for me, developing the Bible wasn’t a plan that I had, it wasn’t on my radar, but you know, I had this background in radio, had this background in voiceover, and I’m in a part of a church and a community uh life group or Sunday school class, if you will. And uh I it was just several Sundays they would ask for somebody to volunteer to read the scripture uh that we’re gonna be talking about. And so I would volunteer from time to time. And one time, the life group leader he said, you know, Dan, every time I ask for a volunteer, I always hope it’s going to be you. I always I love the way God’s word sounds when you read it. And I thought, well, that’s very, very nice to say. And so that was a little seed that was planted. And so the thought came to me, it’s like, well, why don’t you just do a little Facebook video for your friends and family about the resurrection of Christ and put it up around Easter. I thought, uh, I could, I could do that. So I went to the book of Luke and um read it, and I thought, well, I could probably reword this, make it a little more simple to read and understand, and then uh put that up. So I put it up on Facebook, got some good response from it, and so that was another seed, right? People were responding positively. Uh, and then for some reason I just thought, what if I do the entire book of Luke? Wouldn’t that be crazy? And I didn’t really want to do it because I knew it was going to be a lot of work, and I’m, you know, more naturally lazy than that. I already had a full time job and was working, you know, a voiceover business on the side and had a family. Wait a race. But yet the thought persisted. So I uh went to go record the book of Luke. And you can’t just record the Bible because it’s got copyrights and trademarks if you’re using a modern version, right? So I had to find something in public domain. Found the King James Version, and a lot of these and thous and beseechests and mites were in there. And I thought, hmm, beautiful, yes, but hard to read. Not going to do not going to work for the that’s not going to work for me. So I landed on uh the World English Bible, which is more modern. Uh, but even it, I felt some of the terminology, phrasing, sentence structure would be a barrier for people if they don’t know anything about God. Uh so I thought, okay, I’ll use this as my foundation. It’s a good solid foundation, and then I’m gonna work out from here. So I did the entire book of Luke, you know, sentence by sentence, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, until I had it all done, reworded. And uh recorded it, and I put it out on Audible on Amazon, and people started purchasing it. You know, I didn’t do any advertising, but they found it somehow, so they started purchasing it. And I thought, well, that’s kind of cool, but I thought I was done at that point. Um, but as you mentioned, God is persistent, right? So the thought came to me, hey Dan, you know the book of Acts is really the book of Luke part two. Don’t you think people need to know the rest of the story? It’s like, yes. So reluctantly I did it. And as you can imagine, it was that kind of back and forth throughout the entire thing until I finally got to the point where it’s like, Are you asking me to do the whole Bible? And I would protest so much, Sylvia. I’d be telling God, it’s like, we don’t need another version of the Bible. We’ve already got 900 translations out there, we don’t need one more. And I would say this to him time and time again, as I’m still being obedient, as you mentioned, doing the work I thought he was calling me to do, but I was complaining about it. Uh I I say that because it was a lot of work and I was still working, uh, but yet I wanted to be obedient and I did enjoy it. I enjoyed the process of rewording things and you know, keeping the same meaning and intent, um, and having to look at several different translations to make sure what I was writing was correct. Uh, and then, you know, just kind of working with God. I felt like I was working with my dad on a project. You know, he and I sitting side by side at my keyboard. That’s what it felt like. Uh, so it was a lot of work, but it was hard. Um, and finally, you know, I was complaining, and uh it got to the point where I heard God say, not audibly, but in my spirit, I heard him say, Dad, why don’t you let me decide what we need and what we don’t? It’s like, okay, I guess I can’t argue with God, can I? So from that point on, I just kind of put my nose to the grindstone, and four years later, uh, here we are with a new translation of the Bible. So that’s what it was like for me, just experiencing his persistence.
Yeah, it’s just awesome to hear you because it affirms to me or reaffirms in circumstances that I’m not the only crazy one that gets this. You know, but he persisted with me for years, like 2007. I was in Dallas, Texas, and I was watching Y Pre Love. Um, the movie, yeah. The movie with Julie Roberts and with girlfriends, and my marriage, my first marriage was ending basically. I I I already sensed it was gonna come to an end. And he asked for a divorce or a separation in 2008. And sitting outside of I pray and love, I mean, she goes through a major spiritual transformative experience. You know, she she starts praying. Like, I remember the first scene, she like kneels down, she’s like, I am not happy in this marriage, I’m not happy in this life. Something just profoundly like knocks her over the head, and it’s Christ. We all know it’s Christ. It’s just she just kneels down and she goes, I don’t even know how to do this, I don’t know how to pray. But we forget that the prayer part is just talking to him. We just talk to him. That’s it. Like I’m talking to you. And that’s how I started. I started to journal because I was a writer, and I had always been a writer ever since I was a little kid, but I pushed it away because I got caught up in that corporate America kind of like act and hypocrisy and all that that my ego mind was pulling me towards, right? And my soul kept trying to fight with my ego, like, this isn’t who you were created to be, you need to stop. And it was this turmoil going on inside of me. Um, but long story short, I told the maker of the entire universe no since 2007, and then 2020 hits, right? And the whole world shuts down. And I’ve got a kindergartner and I’ve got a freshman in high school. And we’re in Austin, Texas, and I start hearing this prompting. Write your book, it’s time, trust me. Write your book, it’s time to trust me. I mean it is like like you know the movie Ghost, like when um when he’s talking to Whoopi Goldberg and he won’t leave her alone. That’s what it felt like. I’m like, enough. Like, why do you what am I gonna write about? Who am I gonna write a book and publish? What am I supposed to say here? And he’s like, you don’t worry about that. That’s my job. You don’t worry about the how. I will give you the how. You just need to stay obedient to me and you need to do it now, and you need to stop telling, you need to stop telling me no. There’s no choice here. You need to, you need to obey. And I’m like, fine, fine. I’m going to obey because every time I obey you, something great happens. So I’m just gonna, fine. And so I start writing, and I was like, oh God. So I started going on these long walks because that’s all you can do during COVID. I’m 19, and luckily I had my notebook with me because I carry a notebook everywhere I go, and all of a sudden, Dan, the freaking download started, and they wouldn’t stop. And I just started writing, writing, and then he started to send me people in my journey that I needed. And it was like every step I took in faith, more was revealed to me. And again, and more, and like that, and I’m sure it was the same for you because it started with Luke and then Acts, and then all of a sudden, while he was there, you turn around, the whole Bible’s there now. You have a finished product. Well, I sat with it, I sat with all the major turning points in my life. It was a book about initially, it was titled Journey to Me, Find the Wisdom of Change. That was in 2021, it was self-published, but it was all written with the purpose of healing me and healing my relationship with my dad, who I’d had a major trauma with. That is chakra one. By the time I roll around chapter 15, there’s a full forgiveness piece that occurs. And we know that forgiveness is really, we are we’re doing it to honor God because of the forgiveness he has given us. It’s out of that abundance that we forgive others, not that we’re saying that what they did was okay, it wasn’t, but we’re freeing ourselves from that cage of fear, of anger, resentment, bitterness, whatever it is. Because my my father in heaven knew he was equipping me for what was going to come four years later, and that was my father’s death. Right. And he knew my heart, just like he knew your heart and what you needed to do. He knew that if I if I did not heal those parts of me, that I would regret it, and that would pose a problem with my mission, my purpose in life to impact humanity. And I’m sure it was the same concept for you, you know. Like he knew he knew what you needed to do because he’s equipping you for what’s coming next.
And that’s the funny, that’s the funny part, right? He equips us. Uh you you mentioned that you didn’t feel qualified. Well, I certainly didn’t feel qualified. I I told God, I am not a theologian, I am not a Bible scholar. Sure, I’ve read the Bible several times, but I don’t feel you know equipped to be able to do this. But then in his own gentle way, he reminded me, you know, when I started spreading the message of my gospel, I used some pretty ordinary guys, fishermen, tax collectors, you know, ordinary people. And it worked out pretty well for me using that method. So I think I can use you too. So he uh he doesn’t you know call the equipped necessarily, but he equips those who he calls. And that’s certainly what I felt like through this process. And it sounds like what you felt like in yours as well.
Yes, because he’s equipping us so that we can equip others. That’s right. You know, in their journeys, wherever our broken pieces were, like you and I experienced religion trauma to a degree, right? So now we can guide others out of that chapter and say, no, no, no, you’re misinterpreting him. Like when he came to Earth, he he hung out with all the outcasts, you know, he would have hung out with you and I. Like I was married in high school, I was the weird one, yeah, the one no one wanted to hang with, right? He would have hung out with me. I would have been like, not that I’m comparing myself to her, but um, the woman in the Bible that he comes to see in Samaria, and he’s at the well, yeah, and he’s like, But I came to see you, and she’s like, Why me? Like, of all people, why on earth would you pick me? And it’s because he loves us all. Yeah, and one sheep that escapes, he’ll go find. Yeah, you know, and and a repentance of one sinner is worth more than the all the 99 righteous sheep, you know, that didn’t escape the pen. Right. So I always find it he is very loving in his approach, but he’s also stern like a parent. Like, okay, I’ve given you your time and your space. Now you need to listen to me because I know how stubborn you are, because I created you and I know it’s worked well for us, but right now I need you to please pay attention to this. And I’m glad I did because it freed me. I my dad and I were able to be friends the last four years. And then once he passed away, which was I was facing one of the top fears of my life. Like I had already faced the fear of death. Hands down, I faced that one and I moved through that one. But when you’re facing losing someone you love and someone you’ve admired for so long, and someone that you kept wanting to get their attention for so long, right? Which was my case. I you know, I didn’t know if I was gonna be able to take it. And what that experience taught me, that dark, dark chapter, I’ve been talking a lot about it. So I think God is like helping me move through. I I’ve been missing my dad a lot last week, and I think he’s using these interviews this week for me to just kind of talk it out. Um I was able to surrender my grief to him every day because when I found out my father was dying, it was a terminal diagnosis, and we had time to say goodbye, right? And I was so grateful to him that I had listened to him and I wrote that book because it healed that part of me that could only be healed with God. No amount of therapy did it. And I went through therapy for years, and it didn’t do a single thing until I wrote that book. And I and like you, I was like, Why did I wait so long? Why did I wait? What was it? Um seven, no, 13 years. I told him no for 13 years. Wow, that’s a long time. That’s a long, long time, and he is the shortcut to joy. We’re the ones that stand in his way. He’s just sitting there like patiently, like waiting for us to invite him to be part of our crazy world so that he can give us what we’re praying about. It’s simple, it really is a very simple concept. Man, but we complicate the crap out of it. I mean, we just do it. Why? Why do we complicate this so much? And I think that’s where most people need to hear these interviews and say, don’t do it the way we did it. We’re like the example you don’t want to follow. You want to follow the fact that we invited him eventually, but we’re sharing with you what we wish we would have known 13, 20 years prior and and actually done it. Because look where we’re at today, and we’re really enjoying our life and we’ve stepped into our divine purpose. So do you see those knowledge or divine purpose?
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So, you know, so much of my life, right, it’s just been away from God, wasted years, where I wasn’t necessarily pursuing him. But again, you know, he, like you said, he is a great father. He loves us so much, he delights to see us. The Bible tells us that we are the apple of his eye. And if we will just take a small step to him, he will just open up a whole new world to us. And that’s why I just encourage people, get in the word, you know, start reading the Bible for yourself. And that’s one of the things I wanted to do. Lower the entry point for people, right? So if anybody speaks English, they can read and understand this version because it’s written in that way, and it still remains true to the historic uh way scriptures has have been interpreted, so you’re not missing out on anything, right? Now, if you want to do a deep study on the Bible, yeah, go ahead and look at other versions. But if you just want to find out who Jesus is, what he meant, perhaps you’ve been turned away by church before, or things have happened in your past that make you think you’re not worthy. Don’t believe the lies. You are worthy. He died for a purpose for you. And if you will just spend a little bit of time reading the Bible uh every day, you know, things will begin to shift and change in your life just like it did for me. And it sounds like just like it did for you as well.
It did. Because I released the second edition just last year on September 24th. So the anniversary just came up. Uh, one year it’s been there, and it was a best-selling book on Amazon, and it stayed there for a couple of weeks. Um, and I just remember it’s all for the glory to God, you know, because everything changes. Once I read it, and and that was on his direction, I understood why he did it the first go-round. The second go-round was to really write it in the three voices that needed it to be written in. Fear in the first six chapters, joy in the set second six chapters, and then the last chapters, trust in God’s sovereignty, because that’s where you fully surrender, and you don’t surrender once in a while, you surrender daily to him, and you just turn to him daily, and in the minute details of your day, he’s like with you, he’s with you in the car, he’s with you in the shower, he’s with you in bed, like he’s with you everywhere, and he sees it all, and he just wants to be invited into your life. And I invite him every day. I have coffee chats with him every morning at five, and I sit where I my husband does woodworking, and he created the most beautiful piece of artwork for me. It’s a cross, but with the image of Jesus Christ. Oh wow, and so where I sit in my dining room, I can see him, and behind me is the picture of my dad.
Yeah.
So every morning I come in with my cup of coffee, which I used to do with my dad. When he was alive. And I’ll say, Good morning, daddy. Hope you’re doing well in heaven, and I’ll look at Christ and I’ll say, Hey dad, how are you? I’m here to pray with you and to just anything to you today. And um it’s been an interesting week. I even told my husband, I was like, my dad was just coming up a lot. And I think it’s because I dedicated the book to him. But he was already gone when it released. He died on Father’s Day last year.
Oh wow.
So he was a little guy like, please stop at the holidays, because I had um a maternal aunt who I was very, very close to, who was my second mom, died on the first of the year of 2024, my mother’s younger sister, who I thought would be my you know, mom after my mom passed away, and then she died suddenly. But um I told God, I was like, okay, I’m can we not do holidays anymore? I mean, I get I get your you’re you’re doing like you you want the joy of the season to kind of sandwich in with like the grief of losing someone you love. But I don’t think I can take one more. No, I’m trying, let’s not make this a trilogy of any kind, please. You know, I’m I’m happy with the number three. Uh I love the number three, I’m with you, but you know. Um so it’s on Amazon, you said, under your name Dan Parr.
Amazon Audible Barnes and Noble online.
Um, did you just call it like the Bible or what did you call it?
Uh the Holy Bible, uh, an easy to understand red version. Uh people can people can find it on Audible and Amazon.
That’s awesome. And do you have a webpage or anything that we could learn more about you or no?
I should be so much better at social media, but I don’t. So I’m on LinkedIn if somebody wants to hook up with me. Okay. They can find me on LinkedIn.
Well, I’ll definitely hook up with you on LinkedIn so that when this episode releases, I can tag you. And then we can have a collaborative, like, hey, remember that conversation we had like a while ago, but still, you know. Um thank you so much, Dan, for joining us today on release out reveal purposes. It was my honor, honestly, to have you and I’m so glad that um Holy Spirit was persistent with you in leading you to your beautiful light, um, because your your light is very much needed in this world. We know that a lot of people don’t want to read the Bible because of the language in it. It can be a little intimidating to get through it, and some of us ended up with fat studies we’ve done and it just so we can truly understand what we’re reading. So it always helps to have a version that can be easier to understand, to at least start working our way through the word. And then if we want to do studies, then we do that, you know? Exactly. And the more we talk to him, the more he reveals to us. So he’s the man, you know, he’s the boss.
Yeah.
Um, and go ahead.
Oh, just my pleasure to be here. Thanks so much. I mean, I I appreciate so much the work that you’re doing and just trying to point people in the right direction and giving them the space to explore and find out and just hear different stories. So thank you for your work that you’re doing.
I appreciate that. I appreciate that. It’s the affirmation that we all need. Um, and we are all his messengers, so we do share his message of love um in the world. So thank you so much for that, Dan. And for the listeners who release that reveal purpose, remember Father, Matthew 5.14 to always be the light because look at this beautiful, bright light that you have right in front of you with Dan. Um, if you weren’t alive, you wouldn’t have been able to shed that beautiful light and help people that have had trauma with religion step into their faith fully. So thank you, Dan, for your light. And for those listening, thank you so much for what you do for the rest of humanity. Have a wonderful week. Stay safe. Love y’all. Bye now.
So that’s it for today’s episode of Released Doubt Revealed Purpose. Head on over to iTunes or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week who posts a review on iTunes. We’ll win a chance on the grand prize drawing to win a twenty-five thousand dollar private VIP day with Sylvia Worship herself. Be sure to head on over to sylviaworsham.com and pick up a free copy of Sylvia’s gift and join us on the next episode.