Andy Barlow Blog

Monday nights have become grocery night for us at the Barlows for 2 reasons: 1/I get paid on Monday, so it’s good to buy food when you have money and 2/It’s one of the few nights of the week on which nothing else is happening. So we made our somewhat normal trek to Wal-mart for groceries and a few other things our local grocery store doesn’t carry in the way of Christmas gifts, and while we were there looking for chili sauce, I ran across the product pictured to the right.

Now I’m not normally someone who craves re-fried beans, but as I passed this product on the shelves, nothing especially good came to mind. In fact, my first thought was that whatever money was spent on product pictures and advertising was completely wasted. To be more honest, I thought I was looking at soft tacos with dog poop in them. And the lemon wedge on the backside of the plate did nothing to make me want to purchase the product.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this picture brought to my mind a rush of negativity that I don’t associate with many food products. You see, I like eating. And I do it often. And I like to like eating.

So this experience at the world’s largest retailer stirred my recently dormant thought processes and caused me to ask my wife, Mary, out loud, “Hey, what do you think about this?” She confirmed my opinions about poor product pictures and we moved on.

Or so I thought…

I couldn’t get the “poop tacos” out of my mind, thinking, “Is that really the best Wal-mart could do to represent their house brand?” Really? How sad. I guess in reality, this all started with our Connection Class lesson last weekend when I read this from Genesis 4:3-5:

3/In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to God. 4/But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5/but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry and his face was downcast.

These 3 verses from Genesis caused me to Tweet this Saturday evening: “Gen. 4: Cain is rejected by God b/c he brings left-overs, kills Abel in jealousy. Worship check – left-overs or your absolute best?” I can’t seem to shake these thoughts over the last week.

It also caused me to think about the “brands” that I represent and the way in which I represent them. How do the actions (pictures, product shots) of my life portray that in which I claim to believe? Let me see if I can run them down for you.

1. MY GOD – I don’t ever remember being told this explicitly, but when I began to understand the calling of God on my life, I began to understand that becoming a Christ-follower was going to be a process that consumed the remainder of my life. I was 15 years old then. It was going to require constant change (called repentance), willing sacrifice, and an obvious pursuit based in faith. God established this from the beginning when He handed down the 10 Commandments in Exodus and confirmed it numerous other places throughout Scripture. Being a Christ-follower requires me to act daily in a manner rarely understood in our present world. Does my day-to-day life depict a life offering my best to God? This is a question with which I struggle constantly.

2. MY FAMILY – I’ve heard this phrase dictated to many a teen headed out with friends for the evening minus the over-seeing eye of mom and dad: “Remember who you are and whose you are.” To many, this would simply be misunderstood, if understood at all. But the idea is this; when you go out, remember that you have a last name and your actions in the near future will reflect directly on that last name. I want my family, somewhat selfishly I guess, to be proud of me. I want to carry myself in a way that honors them because they honor me. Would my grandmother be proud of me verbally assaulting the elderly lady that just cut me off? Would my wife want to commemorate my release from jail with a framed photo? I think not.

3. MY CHURCH – I’m a Pastor – yes, an Associate Pastor – but the Pastor part of my calling still affords me the opportunity to live in what many ministers call the “glass house”. Many people expect me to act a “certain way” and do certain things, some of which are based in the truth of the Bible and some of which are based in perception and personal preferrence, and they watch for it, even when I least expect it. (I must admit, I’m better at meeting the “certain way” expectations when they’re based on the unchanging nature of Scripture.) And I’m truly blessed to serve at a church like Coastal Oaks where there is an understanding that ministers are still human, but even still, the expectations remain. I probably can’t meet everyone’s expectations, but I want to honor my church as well by serving and loving it well, giving to it regularly, and supporting the ministries there for which God has gifted our people.

TO WAL-MART: C’mon guys, I know you just spent a ton of $$ revamping your Great Value brand, and I understand that simple is in when it comes to advertising, but the label on those re-friend beans is simply repulsive. Spend a little more $$ and fix it. At this point, you couldn’t possibly convince me of your desire to sell me a can of Great Value re-fried beans because your picture speaks 1000 negative words.

TO EVERYONE ELSE: What words do the pictures of your life speak?