The Beard

In the words of the great B.B. King: The beard is gone. The beard is gone away. Okay, maybe that's not exactly how it goes, but my beard is gone. I am now "Babyface" Darren. I'm back to my clean-shaven ways. I had that beard for over three years. I hadn't seen my entire face for that long. I looked in the mirror after I shaved and I didn't even recognize myself. The events that demanded the shave was that my youth group and the one we combine with do fundraising by working at the concession stands at Utah Jazz games, and it is Energy Solutions Arena policy that all workers there must be clean-shaven. So I manned-up, bought a Schick Quattro and some Edge Pro shaving gel and discovered the hidden Darren. Most of the people at my church and work had never seen me clean-shaven before so it was a pretty big shock for them. Overall, I think it looks pretty good (at least from the comments I've been getting). It seems that women like the clean-shaven look and men wonder why I would ever shave off a beard like that. My plan for now is to keep it clean-shaven through the summer and revisit growing the beard back when fall and winter hit. Hopefully I'll post a picture of myself beardless soon. Until then, God bless.

Matt Chandler

I'm waiting for some laundry to finish drying so I guess I have a little time to do some blogging. Recently I've been listening to Matt Chandler's podcasted sermons. He's the pastor of The Villiage Church. His sermons are absolutely amazing. I've been listening to his Luke series and almost every one has torn right through me and brought me close to tears. God has truly gifted him. If you have time to listen to sermons throughout the week (praise God for a job that lets me) I highly recommend listening to him. I don't think it will be a waste of your time.

Now for some other stuff:
Last night at my church's college ministry I won a hotdog eating contest by downing five hotdogs with buns in 4:58. The next closest competitor finished in about 6 minutes. I don't recommend trying it. While the taste of victory is definitely sweet, the feeling of five hotdogs with their buns in my stomach was definitely bitter. I made it through the night, but there were some repercussions. I'll save you the details :)

On a much more serious and joyous note - God has really been convicting me of pride in my life and used Deut. 8 for a lot of that. If you haven't read the chapter in a while, I recommend reading it again. I love how it says that it is God that brings us to a point of hunger in order to humble us, and then in verse 16 God tells us that it is for our good. I'm slowly learning to love the different hungers that God brings into my life that bring me to a greater dependence on Him. I'm learning that the pleasures of Egypt don't compare to the manna from heaven. And Jesus is that manna from heaven. For every hunger, we need Jesus. We need to live by the word that proceeds from his mouth. I love the Jeremy Camp song that simply says "give me Jesus." In the morning when I rise, when I am alone, and when I come to die, give me Jesus. He is enough for me.

God bless you.

Almost one month later...

I finally post again. Sorry for the lack of posting. Life has been pretty hectic lately. Youth ministry has kept me very busy both in time spent with them and time preparing to spend time with them. Time grew scarce and something had to go so regular posting has pretty much gone out the window for the past month. I keep telling myself to post more and I never get around to it. So here is a quick update. Christmas was really good, although it was the first one without my older sister there. That was sad :( But we had a good time with my younger sister and her husband Eric. I got a few books, which is always good. I then pulled an overnighter with the youth for New Years eve eve. I had my first experience couch sledding a couple weeks later. That was a unique experience. Imagine a full-size couch with long two-by-fours behind it on skis flying down a snow-covered hill. It was a total blast. I highly recommend it. That was followed by winter camp the next weekend. Winter camp was awesome. We had a few times of worship and teaching and the kids worshipped like I had never heard them before. It was a truly special time. We managed to throw some sledding down a massive hill in there as well. I went down once and came out looking like the abominable snowman. We had a really good and blessed time. Back at home I got to lead worship on Sunday for my church because our worship leader was taking a weekend off to go to St. George. It seemed to go really well by my account, and, by all reports, it did :) I also started a series on I John for the youth on Sunday mornings so, if you remember, I would appreciate your prayers for that. Anyway, life is crazy with little time for much of anything. In other words, I'm loving it! It gets really tiring and stressful at times, but overall I love the pace. What better way to spend my singleness? Anyway, I better get going. Need to start preparing for next Sunday :) Thank you for all of your prayers. May God keep you and bless you and cause His face to shine upon you and give you peace for His name and His glory's sake.