The heart behind the music

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

PAUL BUTLER: You’re listening to a special weekend edition of The World and Everything in It. I’m Paul Butler.

Earlier this week, we highlighted a few minutes of a recent conversation between WORLD’s Travis Kircher and early Contemporary Christian Music artist Twila Paris.

MUSIC: [“Knowin’ You’re Around”]

In 1981 Twila Paris recorded her first commercial studio project: “Knowin’ You’re Around.” She was a relatively unknown young songwriter at the time…just 20-years old. Growing up performing in churches and evangelistic meetings, she was no stranger to the stage.

MUSIC: [“He Is No Fool”]

In contrast to many of the female artists of the 1980s and 90s, Twila Paris was modest—singing humbly and simply. Many of her most well known songs have become Praise and Worship standards…Songs like: “He Is Exalted”, “We Will Glorify”, “Lamb of God”, and “We Bow Down.”

She would go on to record more than 20 albums, with more than 30 number one hits and many awards and accolades. Twila stepped out of the limelight to focus on her family and a life of quieter ministry.

In a moment, Travis’s conversation on her upbringing, her faith, and what she’s up to today.

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KIRCHER: Twila Paris, thank you for joining us.

PARIS: Thank you. My privilege.

KIRCHER: So let’s start at the beginning. You’ve had a very successful career in Christian music. You released more than 20 albums, you had more than 30 number one Christian radio singles. You were named the Gospel Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year for three years in a row. But take me back. When did you first get involved in music?

PARIS: Oh, well, I think it was to some degree genetic. My dad was a very accomplished musician, and for a while he was actually my piano teacher. So I just grew up with music in the house all the time.

KIRCHER: In fact, a lot of people don’t know this, but you cut an album when you were just four years old, right? Tell us about the Little Twila Paris album.

PARIS: Oh my goodness, yeah. I’d completely forgotten—spaced on that. Yes. So yeah. My dad, when I was very young, he was in ministry all his life—or all my life, as long as he was here. And he was an evangelist at the time, which, in those days, the particular meaning, you don't really hear the word used that much this way anymore, but it basically meant an itinerant minister who traveled from church to church. And so he would be at one church one week, another church another week. So he was a preacher, but he also was a songwriter and singer. And so he had recorded an independent album project. And he had me start singing in church when I was 2. Which I guess was sort of my idea, and then he just, sort of, you know, went with it. And so by the time I was 4, he asked me if I wanted to make an album. And I said, “Sure.” So we did an independent album with him playing piano and me singing.

MUSIC: [“Jesus Loves Me”] 

So, yeah, once in a while still you'll find someone who'll pull one of those out, who's had it for, you know—what would that be, 60-something years at this point? So, yeah.

KIRCHER: So tell us about your memories of those early days when your dad was a traveling evangelist and you were going from church to church. I imagine that was a very different time. Help people now to understand what your life was like back then.

PARIS: So I was the oldest child, and my next sibling was born when I was 8, and by that time, my dad was pastoring, so it was always just ...my mom and dad and me traveling together in the car. And a “revival” also had a different meaning in those days. I don't know that it was necessarily Biblical, but a revival was what an evangelist came and did at your church. It meant that they would preach every night. Everybody would come out to church every night for a whole week, or maybe even two weeks in a row. So my life at that point consisted of driving from one town to the next, where we would then—my dad would preach every night at whatever church we were at in whatever town. And so I spent my first several years going to church pretty much every single night of the week, and twice on Sunday. And so those are my memories. And my question was always, as we were driving from one town to the next, sometimes we would stay in the pastor's home, very rarely in a hotel in those days. And so my question was always, “do they have kids?” Because that meant I'd have somebody to play with for the next week or two. And otherwise, if they didn't, then it might be a boring week or two coming up. So yeah, that was my life. And then when I was about 7, we moved to Springdale, Arkansas, and my dad began pastoring a church, and then my church life went down to only three services a week. You know, I would be listening to my dad preach three times a week, instead of six or seven.

MUSIC: [Piano instrumental] 

KIRCHER: As a child you learned music theory…and piano. Was this formal training or did you just pick it up on your own?

PARIS: So my dad actually had a degree in piano. He had a Bible degree, but also a degree in piano. So even though he was teaching me it, it was formal training. But I first started out with my grandma, who lived right next door. When I was just a beginner, she was teaching me, and then she sort of got to the end, I guess, when I was around, I don't know, 11 or 12, she handed me off to my dad, and he began to teach me…My dad passed away about, I guess it was maybe 13 years ago now, but he is the person who taught me to love God and taught me to write a song. My mom was there and very important in my life as well. But dad really was the one, sort of, like mentoring, in particular, in, all that came to be. And, you know, I don't know that you actually can…I don't know that you can teach someone to write a song. But he did teach me music.

KIRCHER: But he gave you homework, right? You had to write your first song when you were 12. Tell us about that.

PARIS: One day at my piano lesson, my assignment was to write a song before next week. And I was like, “What? I can't write a song!” “Well, go try.” So I did, and I came back and I had written a bad song that I don't even remember at this point. But what it did was—and I think he understood this—It demystified the process. It opened that door for me…And so, yeah, but he taught me, you know, not just classical piano, but as a songwriter himself, I think he understood I probably don't have a goal of being a concert pianist, but useful, and as someone in ministry, useful in ministry. So he taught me, from a pretty young age music theory, which helps to demystify the process of how you can take that music, including even those chords that you hear in your head, and create that sound on your instrument.

KIRCHER: Can you tell us something about that first song? Is there anything you remember?

PARIS: Not a thing. I mean, I think it was so. I probably repressed it long ago. Blocked it out. Yeah. I blocked it out. Yeah.

KIRCHER: So we know how you started out musically. Tell us about your spiritual journey. How and when did you first come to know Christ?

PARIS: I got saved. When I was 4, I went forward, one night when my dad was preaching in one of those churches. And I believe that that can be totally valid. I think it is for so many young, very young people and young children. But then for me—I'll use me as an example—there were aspects of my life that were part of me by the time I was 18,19, 20 years old, that didn't even exist when I was 4. Like ambition, for example. And so I went through this process of God just doing his work in my heart, you know, being this preacher's kid, that kind of thought I had it all together was obeying the rules, you know, of really laying down and submitting everything, and saying “I want to do whatever you want me to do. I want to be who you want me to be.” So God was just doing this intricate work in my heart on an ongoing basis. And because I’d been writing songs and my dad had kind of opened that door for me, that just became this natural outlet of me expressing what was going on—what God was teaching me, leading me through, doing in my heart.

KIRCHER: So how did your relationship with Christ affect your music? At some point you knew was more than just a hobby, that music could possibly be your career, or even your calling. Walk us through that change.

PARIS: So that kind of goes back to when I was about 17, still in high school, I began to wonder, “is this something that I might be called to do as a vocation?” And I did. It was around that age that I started to write “real” songs, I guess you would say that you could actually consider putting on an album at some point….and by the time I was 20, I just had this big stack of songs that I would sing for my friends. That was about it. And so my dad encouraged me to record those. And so we just went. He literally co-signed for me. We borrowed some money. We went to a studio in Oklahoma City, and through a friend of a friend, found someone you know, who was recommended to produce an independent album, and we just went and did that. And the idea was, you know, we did the math: okay, you're gonna make—in those days, you'd make albums and also cassettes, okay, so you're going around and you're singing and you're selling these. How many do you have to sell to pay back the bank? I mean, that was the whole—that was the goal. You can use these in ministry, and then you pay back the bank. And that's kind of as far as we thought.

KIRCHER: So in those early days were there certain musicians you looked up to? Who would you say influenced you musically?

PARIS: So among Christian musicians…He's not very much older than me. Doesn't seem like much now, but back in the day when he was a young musician, and I was still in junior high, I loved to listen to Dallas Holm. And then full circle, when, when I was a young musician, I got a chance to tour with him for a while, which was amazing, of course. Evie Tornquist—probably you'd have to be about my age…but when I was, you know, once again, in like that sort of junior high, high school age, I listened to Evie a lot. Second Chapter of Acts. Probably a lot of people, even now don't remember Second Chapter of Acts. The Imperials. Russ Taff. But yeah, my early influences would all be people that the young kids now never heard of, right?

KIRCHER: So during this time, you’ve been producing records, cassettes independently. Tell us about the day you got signed to your first major record label.

PARIS: So once again, a friend of a friend, someone sent this off to a company that was starting a new contemporary music. They had done traditional Christian music, but they were starting a new contemporary label, because contemporary Christian music was moving into its second generation at that point, but it was still pretty young, pretty new and fresh, and so I literally got a phone call…

MUSIC: [“We Bow Down”]

… out of the blue from Zondervan who was best known as a book and Bible publisher but they had a music division. But this lady was on the other end of the phone, and she said, “Hi, I'm calling from Zondervan, and we'd like to sign you to our label. Can you be at the Christian booksellers convention next week?” I mean, it was literally as simple and out of the blue as that. And I was like, “Well, I don't know. I've got to talk to my dad, he's out of town. He's in Thailand right now!” He was on a mission trip, you know. So, I mean, it was, that was, like the, the initial conversation, and, you know, I did end up signing with them, and that was, yeah, that was kind of the entryway for into Christian music….Wayne Watson and Michael card were on, ended up on that label around the same time I did as new artist.

KIRCHER: I cannot imagine what they must have been like at such a young age. That must have been exciting and scary at such a young age. How did life change for you?

PARIS: You know I thought, “well, it's going to be like, next week, everybody's going to know who I am, like, like, Evie and Dallas Holm.” But I realized after a while, “Oh, that's sort of like, my permission to start to get to work.” And then the work starts. You know, so very, you know, naive, didn't know what to expect, and much more comfortable sitting at the piano writing a song, and more comfortable in the recording studio than I was on stage in the spotlight. That was not a natural desire for me. I had to, like, learn to get comfortable with that.

KIRCHER: So how did you get comfortable with that? Did you struggle with stage fright?

PARIS: It wasn't exactly stage fright. And I remember my dad said to me, “You know what Twila? If you're God-conscious, you won't be self-conscious. Think about what it is that God wants to do through you, what it is he wants to say to these people, how does he want to minister in their lives through you? Focus on that and on him, and then you won't have space left over in your mind to worry about, ‘Oh, how am I coming off? What are they thinking about me?’” And that was absolutely true. So by the time I was going and doing concerts, it still wasn't necessarily my I think I'm naturally, I took one of those personality tests years later and found out that I was actually a little bit more of an introvert than an extrovert…But you learn to get comfortable with it. It's part of what God has called me to do. And if I hadn’t gotten comfortable with it, I probably would have—I don’t know—had a stroke or something at some point. [LAUGHS]

MUSIC: [“Lamb of God”]

KIRCHER: Over your career, you’ve written several worship songs…some of which have found their way into hymnals. I was hoping you could tell us a little about the inspiration behind some of those. Let’s start with the song “Lamb of God.”

PARIS: “Lamb of God” is kind of interesting in that I just sat down and wrote that one day. There's not a story behind it, as such. But the thing about that particular song that really goes to a whole concept, is that when I finished writing it, I remember kind of saying to myself, “Wow, did I write that?” And then the answer was really quickly, “No, you didn't.” And I think you know what I mean....I always felt like I was dependent on that spark of inspiration that didn't start with me. You know, that was just from the Holy Spirit and those ideas were living, and they came alive as you started to work on them. And those were the ones that would resonate with other people and do God's work in their hearts. I didn't need to be there at all. They'd hear a recorded version of the song. And a way that I've thought about it a lot over the years too, is that people would—they could take those songs and make them their own. It was like a garment that someone else could put on. And it really never felt like it belonged to me. Didn't originate with me. And I think the things that God, the gifts he gives us, the things he allows us to do in ministry—that's always true, right? Anything that we just sort of do on our own, it just lays there flat. But those things that really are alive and do God's work, they originate with him.

MUSIC: [“He Is Exalted”]

PARIS: “He Is Exalted” I wrote that song before I was married, I got married at. 26…but I remember I was still living in my parents house, you know, where they lived at that point, and there was one central living room—living area, big, open, living dining area that you had to go through to get from anywhere in the house to anywhere else in the house. So it was a highly trafficked area and I would just sort of block everything out. …I could just feel like I was alone in the house, and so I just blocked everything out and write in that big, open central room, which, when I think about it now, I'm like, “That's crazy. I can't believe I did that.”

MUSIC: [“We Will Glorify”]

PARIS: “We Will Glorify” was definitely written during that time….I will say this, I was leading worship at the time in my home fellowship. And I will say some of those early songs, they were almost born out of sometimes you'd be, you'd be leading worship, and you'd be sort of reaching for a particular song, and you just kind of couldn't think of anything that fit the moment. And it almost, it felt like some of those songs just sort of came from, like, “I need something like this,” you know, “I'm kind of reaching for something like this.” And so I would write it.

MUSIC: [“How Beautiful”]

PARIS: “How Beautiful”...I mean, it’s been used some in corporate worship and I guess it is in some hymnals. I wasn't thinking of it as that kind of song. And I've actually had several songs that I wasn't thinking about corporate worship when I wrote it, but they've ended up being used that way. With “How Beautiful,” I literally was just thinking through that idea of, when you listen to those words, “how beautiful the hands that served the wine and the bread and the sons of the earth.” And then, toward the end of the song, it's “how beautiful the hands that serve,”—present tense—”the wine and the bread and the sons of the earth.” And the whole idea of the song is, the hands, the feet, the heart, that we are to be. We're called to be a reflection of Christ. We are the body of Christ. And when he was here on Earth, it was his physical body, literally doing those things. And now we are called to reflect who He is in us and through us, in how we live our lives and how we serve one another and others as well. So that's really the heart behind that song. And you know there's the line that says, “how beautiful the radiant bride who waits for her groom with his light in her eyes.” And I was just thinking about the body of Christ, the bride of Christ. And you might not even be able to believe this, but it never occurred to me—never occurred to me—that people would use that song in weddings. And how often do I hear, even now still about some young lady, within the last year or so who wasn't even born, you know, her parents were probably young when that song was written. And still using that song in a wedding.

KIRCHER: Twila, having written so many songs that became congregational favorites, I think you’re qualified to answer this. What, in your view, makes a good hymn? And how is a hymn different from, say, a contemporary Christian worship song?

PARIS: So for me, we have certain formats—sort of—when we think of a hymn. We think of older songs as hymns. …The songs that draw me personally into worship, and the songs that do seem to stay around and be used in that way for longer periods of time. It seems like they are more—they're just Christ-centered. They're more vertical. It doesn't mean we can't mention ourselves at all, because we are the focus of what Christ came to do. But I think what I mean, it's like for our hearts to be really focused on him, you know? I think that the songs that make us think of the lyrics to the songs that we read about in the book of Revelation, the ones that are maybe more akin, you know, to those that just really draw our hearts up toward him and away from and out of our focus on ourselves.

MUSIC: [“Watch and Pray”]

KIRCHER: So when I think of your music, I think of two Twilas. There’s Twila the hymn singer, and Twila the pop artist. So I wanted to ask you about some of the inspiration behind some of your more well known pop songs. Tell me the story behind “Watch and Pray.”

PARIS: I think it was more just, you know, thinking about Christ's return and which once again, I have a program where I read through the Bible, I guess, the Old Testament every year, and the New Testament a couple of times on this particular plan every year, and just finished Revelation, just and started over in Matthew a few days ago. And so that, you know, “come Lord Jesus.” It's fresh in my mind. And boy, I don't know about you, but I just pray that prayer a lot these days.

MUSIC: [“I Can See Jesus in You”]

PARIS: “I Can See Jesus in You.” That's a song I hadn't thought about in a little bit...but many years ago, I don’t even remember what year that was released, but I was watching a little children's choir. They were getting ready to go on a mission trip, and they were performing for us, just for the local body. And this one little girl who was probably about, I don't know, 8 or 10 at the time, her whole face just lit up. They were singing and doing choreography. And she was just beautiful. It was like the love of Jesus just shining through her. And literally, it was written about, you know, this little girl was kind of that inspiration about that whole little group of kids….So, yeah, so that's the story behind that song.

MUSIC: [“Neither Will I”]

KIRCHER: The song “Neither Will I” is different from some of your other songs. It sounds like you’re singing to someone who keeps falling back into sin. You tell the listener that God won’t give up on them…and that you personally won’t give up on them either. Would you feel comfortable telling the story behind that song?

PARIS: So there was someone in my extended family who had been brought up in a Christian home....and she has, since, in the last few years passed away. But she struggled, you know. She'd given her life to Christ, but she struggled and she stumbled and she slipped and fell, and then she would come back and get on track, and then she'd stumble and and she—she just dealt with addictions and weaknesses and in a particular way that were so visible to everyone. And I remember being tempted to sort of just give up, just sighing…and just being so convicted by the Holy Spirit, that he does not give up on us in that way. And that my responsibility was to continue to pray for her and to hope with her, you know.

KIRCHER: How did your listeners respond to that song?

PARIS: I heard a story of a lady—this has been years ago too—that had given up on her husband, who had weaknesses that he kept falling back into, and maybe similar addictions, I don't know. But she had decided she'd given up. That was it, and she was leaving him. She was leaving town. She had packed up the car, and she was driving out of town, and the local radio station played that song, “Neither Will I,” and she heard it and she was just thinking, “Yeah, whatever.” And then somehow, I don't know how this happened. Was it a mistake? Was it intentional? Was it providential? Somehow, that station without explanation, when that song was over, played it again. Just played it twice back to back...And she said, she started bawling and weeping, and…pulled over on the side of the road and just said, “Lord, I'm so sorry,” you know, and turned around and went home...So for me, sometimes the story behind the song is not as great as the story I hear from other people later about how God used the song.

KIRCHER: When we talk about repeated sin it makes me think of some of the more unfortunate and in some cases horrific scandals we’ve seen in Christian ministry over the years. I’m thinking most recently of Michael Tait, the former member of DC Talk and the Newsboys, who just a few months ago confessed to leading a double life. I won’t get into all the things he confessed to. His statement is online and I think it speaks for itself. But I wanted to ask, is there something about the industry…the celebrity…the touring life…that can tempt Christian artists to compromise?

PARIS: Well, yeah, in answer to the question, you know, can there be a pull with, I think especially the celebrity, and I think maybe even especially, also all the travel, all the being away from home. Temptation, you know. But yes, clearly there is, although it's not just about that, because we all—what's the verse? I can hardly quote anything perfectly now, because I've read so many translations over the years. I always have these little patchwork quotes. But you know, “he that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.” Well, that wasn't just written to Christian musicians, that was written to all of us, because I think it's true for all of us….

And I think sometimes very talented people, whether it's Christian music—you see this in secular music too—sometimes extremely talented people start believing that little lie of the enemy that the rules don't apply to me. I'm different, I'm special, right? And they don't start out thinking it's okay for me to sin. They start out thinking, you know, “I'm so special, I don't need to do all the things that everybody else needs to do. I don't have to stay in the Word. I don't have to be in a group where I'm accountable. I'm good.” And we're not. We're just not good on our own.

KIRCHER: What advice would you give young Christian artists to avoid these temptations? You mentioned Christian community.

PARIS: You know, as simple as it sounds, we know what the means of grace are. We know what the disciplines are. But it can be so tempting to get so busy, and in many occasions, so busy doing God's work, that we somehow get distracted and pulled away from being God's child and that simple faith. The staying in His Word, taking time to just be in prayer, to pour out our heart to him and take just a little bit longer to be open to hearing, you know, his still small voice in our hearts, really being a part of Christian community. And that's where I think the celebrity can sometimes—there can be so much insulation, that it can make it a little more challenging to do that, but we have to find a way.

If you don't have to, don't move. We moved away very temporarily—briefly—and kind of moved right back because we realized, “Oh! We just pulled ourselves up from the soil that we need to be in—that we need to be planted in,” and we just went back home. And it was more difficult logistically to live in Northwest Arkansas, especially in those days, instead of in the center of everything in Nashville, but we felt like it's more important to be in that spiritual soil, you know? To have those deep roots, to be around those people who knew you before and who aren't all that impressed.

KIRCHER: If someone like Michael Tait is listening right now, what would you say to him?

PARIS: I think they know this, but I think maybe they don't hear it enough from the rest of the body. We love you. And the song that you were talking about, we didn't really refer to the lyrics, but it's, “he will never give up on you, and neither will I.” And I think just the encouragement of, one step at a time, the way we all started following Christ, just taking that first step. …You know, we're all flawed, and we all have things that we have to repent of daily. You know, the Lord's Prayer, “forgive us our trespasses.” Jesus gave us that prayer to pray. I think he knew we all would need to be praying that often. Sometimes a tiny little handful of people in our immediate family know, “Oh, I lost my temper and blew up today, and said mean things to the people I love the most. Please forgive me.” Whatever it is. You know, we've all been there in larger and smaller ways, but I think at all it's about taking our eyes off Jesus and starting trying to walk on the water on our own and starting to sink, however small or large it seems to be, and however few or many people know about it. So I just think it's about getting our eyes back on him, off of ourselves, accepting His forgiveness and the forgiveness of others, and just putting one foot, behind him, one step at a time. Just doing that again.

KIRCHER: So turning the page… I mentioned “pop Twila.” Were we ever gonna get “grunge Twila” or “acid rock Twila” or anything like that?

PARIS: [LAUGHS] My goodness, I was talking earlier about the fact that I had so many musical influences, kind of across lots of genres in my young, growing-up life, that sometimes I wonder if people thought, “Oh, my goodness, gracious!” I don't think they wanted any more influences coming out of my music. I think there were plenty. So I don't think they wanted me going in any more directions. I probably did go in every direction that interested me, because it was sort of never about defining a genre. To me. It was just about “good music is good music,” and if I love it—I always kind of felt like this—if I love it, the people who listen to my music, they'll probably love it too. If I like it, they'll like it too. And maybe I stretched them a little too far at times, I don't know, but it's almost like having people over to your house for dinner, right? If you serve them some food that you really love, that you've put your heart into cooking and you've tried it and you like it, you think they'll probably gonna like it too, and you want to share it with them. So I guess it’s a lot like preparing or serving a meal.

MUSIC: [“God Is in Control”]

KIRCHER: I want to ask you about one last song. It’s a song that you released in the mid-90s…probably around the height of your career. And it’s one of the songs you’re most known for. Tell me about “God is in Control.”

PARIS: Oh, what was the exact date? It was in the 90s, maybe the early 90s. And I was just kind of looking at what was going on around me and culture and society—and of course, now that all feels mild compared to what's been going on in culture. It's funny to think about now. In the last few years, I thought, “man, “God is in Control” is more appropriate now than it was when I wrote it!” But I remember just feeling kind of, you know, nervous and fearful and worried, and kind of like, “What's gonna happen here? This is just, this is a scary time to be alive!” And I just felt like God was just speaking to me quietly in my heart and in my spirit and just reassuring me that, just like always in the past, in the present and in the future, he's got this. He's not surprised by any of this. He's not worried about it. His plan is moving forward, and he knows exactly how this is going to resolve, right? And so that was the song. It was really for me. It was about the macro and me just taking a breath and remembering to rest in Him, in light of this world that I was living in.

PARIS: That's another one that after it was released, people would come up to me and talk or write letters, and they'd say they'd be applying that song personally, not in the macro. You know, “my husband had cancer, and God used that song to minister to us and encourage us and help us to hold steady.” And I was like, “Oh, my goodness!” I didn't think of that application. You feel silly admitting that, but that's just how it is. Whatever our gift is, doesn't it feel so often like the loaves and fishes, you know? We give this little thing to God, we share it with the rest of the body, and then it turns into something so much bigger…imagine being the little boy that brought those fishes. And people have preached sermons on this, but it's true with songs too. It's like, “Wow—that's a lot more than I thought it was.” Which I think once again, is testimony to the fact that that wasn't my song. I had the privilege of that just coming through me.

KIRCHER: So what is it like these days being so well known and having complete strangers walk up to you on the street who feel like they’ve known you all their lives because your music?

PARIS: You know, when people would come up to me and say, “Oh, I love your music. I love your voice,” and younger people, especially kids, I don't mind it. I don't get offended by it. I appreciate it. They want to, they want to say something. But when someone comes up and says, “I just wanted you to know how God used this song in my life,” and they tell you their story—that is what sticks with me. That is what means so much more….that's the eternal value of what any of us who are given gifts and called to be in ministry. And really we all are. It just looks different for different people. Happens in different ways. But people are going to give us compliments sometimes that relate to our gifts, and we can say “thank you,” and and appreciate that, and that's affirmation. But when we get those little nuggets of hearing how God has actually done something powerful in someone's heart that somehow we got to be a part of. As I said, that's eternal, that's the gold.

KIRCHER: You’re 66 years old. Your last album came out in 2014. But you’ve been pretty active. Tell us what you’ve been up to and what season of life you and your family are in.

PARIS: You know what? I'm in a season and have been for a while now. I used to talk about myself, for people who know “The Princess Bride” reference of being “mostly retired.” [LAUGHS] But I am mostly at home these days. And in light of the fact that being in the limelight was not necessarily my natural comfort zone anyway, I am perfectly content. God has been giving me and my husband—Jack and I—we talk about this often. We always want to be listening for what those opportunities are, large and small. A lot will be under the radar these days. You know, just opportunities to serve in sometimes small but important ways, right? 

PARIS: Our son is 24 now. He's a youth pastor and a worship leader who just got married in May. And I look at him and what he's doing. I look at some of my nieces and nephews who are just—oh, man—just so on track with their purpose, and calling what God is calling them to do, and pursuing him, and pursuing what he's called them to do, and making such an impact. And I think they are just ramping up into being the tip of the spear.

…But I am loving getting to watch this younger generation. It just fills me up to watch what they're doing and to have the privilege of praying for them and lifting them up. I mean, I literally woke up early this morning. My first conscious thoughts around 5 with my nieces on my heart and just praying for them one at a time. I'm sorry…I'm afraid I'm famous for this in my family…But you get me talking about certain things, you can tell what pushes my buttons. Anyway, I think I got it said, but I'm so proud of these kids. And it's such a privilege…you just get the privilege of helping to be part of launching that next group that's going to be the tip of the spear. And it's more I remember hearing my mom and dad talk about this, and my mom's about to turn 91 and she still prays for us faithfully, but it's more fulfilling than even the amazing opportunities you had and the amazing things that you got to do when you see the next generation, that you got to have a little hand in helping to raise and prepare and pray for moving into their calling. And there's just nothing like it anyway.

KIRCHER: Last question. Twila Paris, what is your legacy? How do you want to be remembered?

PARIS: I don't want—I don't need to be remembered at all, but for however long my songs may stay around, I just want them to be used to glorify God, whether they're doing his work in someone's heart to encourage him, or whether they’re being actually used in corporate worship. Whatever he intended them for, I want them to be used appropriately for His glory, and returned back to him...And it reminds me of Romans 11:36, “For from Him, through Him, and to Him are all things to Him, be the glory.” Yes, it came from Him. It goes back to Him, right? Everything...And really, when I'm gone, I don't think I'm going to be caring about whether people remember my name or not. I don't think I would care at all.

KIRCHER: Twila Paris thank you so much for joining us. It’s been a pleasure.

PARIS: Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it, too.

MUSIC: [“Let Them Praise”]

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I’m Paul Butler.

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