DarrenCalhoun.com

Today, December 3rd is my Birthday!  YAY!

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Wanna help me celebrate? Leave a comment!

Yay – My Birthday came early this year. I’ve wanted a Kodak Zi8 since I first read the reviews of it posted on C|Net a few months ago. Well I found it on sale at Target and picked one up tonight.  The price seemed quite reasonable and the video quality seemed to be pretty nice for a mini-cam.

I’ve only played around with it a little tonight (before I even got it home) and I couldn’t wait to load up the video and see how things were looking. You can check out two videos I made with it below.

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I’m on the road now with three friends heading to Tylertown, Mississippi for the funeral of the father of a good friend of ours.  I’m having a bit of a geek moment enjoying the fact that I’m on my laptop with internet access thanks to AT&T and the iPhone (only getting Edge coverage though… but it’s good enough!).

We’re only about an hour and a half into being on the road for real (made a few stops before really getting moving).  We’ve already had one great road trip song: “if you’re out there” by John Legend.  I hadn’t heard the song since the time of the election – but we certainly went to church in the car listening to it!

I’m going to try and check in from time to time even though this will only be a short trip.  We’ll be right back on the road coming home to Chicago after the funeral.   In the mean time, I’m going to attempt to get some of this backlog of work done.  For now, check out the video and I’ll talk to you guys soon!

The Weight I Carry on Vimeo on Vimeo

I loved this video from Igniter Media from both a design perspective and a personal one.

So often I look ‘fine’ on the surface, but just minutes into a thoughtful reflection on “how am I doing” and suddenly the burdens of my life all start grappling for attention.  I think the challenge is not avoiding having things to carry – I’m not sure how attainable that goal is.  I think we are called to 1) cast our Cares on Him (Jesus) and 2) bear one another’s burdens.  In my mind I think I do both, but in reality I’m not doing so well with either of those.

For me to allow someone else to bear some of my burden would require me to let go of part of it, to actually put the weight of my life in part on someone else.  Theoretically that would make things so much more ‘doable’ but I really struggle with feeling like I’m ‘being a burden’ on someone else.

And giving my cares to Jesus is sooooo much easier to sing about – but in daily living it would seem that I make that a last resort when I’ve run out of things I can do myself.  How much different would my life be if I practiced daily surrendering my cares to Him and seeing what he leaves me to work on?

These are just the thoughts that pass through my mind… these are the thoughts that need to become actions in my life. I hope these things inspire something within you as well.

Think on this!

CHANGED from blaine hogan on Vimeo.

This music video was created for Aaron Niequist’s new song, Changed.

©2009 AARONieq Music / Willow Creek Community Church

I Love this video.  it speaks in simple ways about the awesome things that God has called us to.  “How can we worship more than singing?” is a question we have to ask regularly.

Right now, I’m knee deep in planning an Arts Reception for all the creative, musical, artistic types at my church.  My hope is to empower as many people as possible to connect with our church and use their gifts and to connect with other individuals who share their passions.  I’m extremely excited about the potential of what could come from people gifted by God to do creative things getting together to spread the Gospel, provoke thought and action, and to communicate the heart of God.

Keep me in your prayers as I can get a little overwhelmed with the minute details (that I don’t really need to worry about).  I know that God is in control and working things out wonderfully according to his plan.  If you’re in the Chicago area on August 30th, I’d love to see you there!  You can get details at WCarts.eventbright.com!