Barlow Girl
Posted: February 12, 2009 11:06 amFiled under: Kevin, reflection
While at the checkout stand of the grocery store this evening, I spoke with the clerk. She was wearing a rather interesting necklace, from which a guitar pick hung at the center. On it was printed “Barlow Girl.”
I thought it might be the brand of jewelry, a brand of guitar pick, or a memento from a concert she’d attended.
So I asked her, “whose guitar pick are you wearing?”
“Barlow Girl,” she replied, “it’s a Christian rock band.”
“Oh,” I said, “I see.”
She continued, “It says something about conformity on the other side.”
Immediately I said, “‘be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’ That’s the first thing that comes to mind when I think about conformity.”
As I walked out in the parking lot, I started mumbling, trying to recall the remainder of the verse.
And it came to me.
As I was returning the baskart to the corral, another female shopper said to me, “sir, I’ll take that cart.” I had not heard her until she had walked a bit closer to me. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you,” I said as I handed the cart to her. I was looking at her face, and saw that she glanced at the left breast of my shirt.
I was wearing a pink polo style shirt which I had purchased when I worked at the VA Hospital in Fresno. On the right breast it read “Nursing Service.” On the left breast it was the logo for the hospital, which is a cluster of grapes at bottom with mountains in the background and in the center the VA logo is printed along with the words “Central California.”
“That you may prove what is that good, acceptable and perfect will of God,” I said as I walked back toward my Jeep.
It began to occur to me that actually PROVING the will of God is a thing that we can do by renewing our mind to His word. Our demonstration of His will can be made evident to us when we read His word. And when we read His word, our mind is changed, it is transformed. Thus the changing of our mind is in itself a type of evidence or proof of God’s will for us.
‘Amazing!,’ I thought. ‘Simply amazing!’
All this time, I’ve been wanting to figure out what God’s will is for my life. I’ve asked others to pray for me that God’s will be done in my life. And that’s true, because I do want His will in my life. And I’ve been wondering to some great extent, ‘what is God’s will for me?’
Strange.
Here I am nearing age 50, and I am asking some of the most (in my opinion) fundamental questions.
It certainly seems that I have at least one answer!
Thanks be to God!
