200 Pomegranates and an Audience of One: Creating a Life of Meaning and Influence - Softcover

Wood, Shawn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0687654920 ISBN 13: 9780687654925

Publisher: Abingdon Press, 2008

Synopsis

200 Pomegranates empowers and inspires readers to develop their God-given talents and contribute something that makes a difference in the world, be it through construction or counseling, doing people’s taxes carefully and ethically, or raising and teaching children. Even if your contribution seems to go unnoticed by others, you can rest assured that God sees and values your work.

Readers follow the story of obscure Old Testament figure Huram of Tyre, an artist putting the finishing touches on Solomon's temple. He honed his craft and contributed something of beauty and excellence, though some of his best work was thirty feet off the ground, where few people would notice its intricacies. Likewise, we have the ability and opportunity to create something of worth, be it for the lasting enjoyment of others or for God's eyes only. 

We may not all be artistic in the traditional sense, but we are nonetheless creators, made in the image of the world's Creator and endowed with skills and talents that can honor God and impact our world. Every good mom is an artist, molding her children as creations of God. Every ethical businessperson leaves a legacy of people seeing God through his or her careful work. Every after-school teacher makes a mark on the young people whose parents are busy just making ends meet. All talents, skills, and work to be creative and potentially God-honoring, from teaching and chemical engineering to number-crunching and packing a child's lunch.

Readers will gain leadership and life-management skills, while being inspired for daily living. They will walk away saying, "I am an artist. By being the best parent, coach, teacher, welder, pastor, husband, aunt, (fill in the blank!), I can be, I am creating something beautiful in the eyes of God."

About this title

About the Author

Shawn Wood is the Experiences Pastor and a Teaching Pastor at Seacoast Church, a trendsetting multi-site church with thirteen campuses across South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and on the web. Seacoast is ranked among the top ten most innovative churches and the top ten most influential churches, as well as in the top 100 fastest-growing churches in America. He is the author of 200 Pomegranates and an Audience of One and Wasabi Gospel. You can find out more about Shawn on his blog at www.shawnsblogspot.com.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

200 Pomegranates and an Audience of One

Creating a Life of Meaning and Influence

By Shawn Wood

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 2008 Abingdon Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-687-65492-5

Contents

Acknowledgments, 
Introduction: The Artist's Mandate, 
Chapter 1: Get Great at Something, 
Artist Profile: Lori Fitzgerald, 
Chapter 2: Do Something, 
Artist Profile: Greg Surratt, 
Chapter 3: Invest in Things That Last, 
Artist Profile: Herbie Orvin, 
Chapter 4: Work for an Audience of One, 
Artist Profile: CliffCannon, 
Chapter 5: Finish What You Start, 
Artist Profile: Charlene Hornsby, 
Conclusion, 
An Artist's Prayer, 

CHAPTER 1

get great at something

My wife and I had recently moved to the Raleigh, North Carolina, area for me to work on my master's degree in theology. We were the ripe ages of twenty-one and twenty-two and had been married about ten minutes (OK, five months, but who is counting?) when we drove into the Research Triangle to start our life together.

We had been planning the move for all of our married lives, so in our wisdom we had saved about eighteen dollars as a safety net. Because of our financial shortcomings we needed to get jobs, save some money, and then we would look for a place to rent. In one of the few early wise choices, I had arranged to live rent-free for a month or so with some friends, who were also in the area for school, just to get our feet wet.

Knowing this plan and our situation, just one week after moving to Raleigh I came home with a Polaroid picture of our new home and presented it to my wife in a card I bought from the drugstore. "Look what I bought us today, baby!" I exclaimed. Yes, you read that right. I bought our first home (and our first car) without my wife seeing them. I would later learn that not only is that not nice—it's just stupid.

Fast-forward a month or so and there we were in a house that my wife saw for the first time through a Polaroid, making a life in the big city. Life was good. We were loving the new area. We were loving being married. Connie was even starting to love the house. On a few occasions, however, I had heard her mention that there were a couple of things about the house that she really would like to change. "Hardwood floors would look good," she had commented, and, "French doors opening out to the deck would be nice as well."

We were eight months into this marriage and I was really trying to learn how not to make another Polaroid mistake, so I took note of these comments and thought to myself, "Hardwood floors, that can't be that difficult."

So I set out on the pilgrimage that all men must go on at some time in their young lives: the first trip to Home Depot without their dad. I fumbled through the store looking for what I would need to destroy—I mean, remodel—my home.

Like a five-year-old sheepishly meandering through the aisles of Mr. Wonka's factory, I finally saw the golden ticket. Apparently they had just invented hardwood floors for dummies. These were not like the hardwood floors that they make now that just snap in place with hardly any work at all. I wish those had been around—my two-year-old could put those together like they were Lego toys. You had to nail these in place, but at least they were prefinished, which was a whole lot better than seeing me with a can of varnish. Given my history of only swinging hammers to smash spiders, this was just the deal for me. I quickly guessed at how much I would need to cover our little abode and bought a few boxes of hardwood flooring. As I walked to the front of the store I remembered that there was a football game on that afternoon that I really wanted to watch. I reasoned in my head that surely I could get this done in an hour or two.

As afternoon settled on the Wood home, I had gotten as far as ripping up all of the carpet in our living room. (I had definitely underestimated the time this would take.) Dust was billowing all over the place and I was a seminary student on the verge of cussing out loud. I had already cussed a lot in my head. What I had failed to realize is that hammering nails into hardwood is hard. It is even harder if you try to use a Fisher-Price hammer made for preschoolers. So I loaded up and headed back to mecca. As I entered Home Depot for the second time in one day, I decided to try using my words and found another human who might be able to answer my questions. I have often wondered what this man must have been thinking as I asked him how to install the hardwood floor, which I had already purchased, onto the floor of my home that—thanks to me—had no carpet. He explained that I needed a nail gun. That sounded fun and dangerous all at the same time. "Sweet! Where do I get one?" I asked. Lucky for me they will rent a nail gun to any seven-year-old with his daddy's credit card, and so I was offagain to remodel.

Long story even longer, six months later I was still trying to get the hardwoods finished in my home when the opportunity of my young marriage presented itself like a Christmas gift on New Year's Eve. My wife was leaving town for a long weekend at a women's conference. That's when the plan came to me. I would work 24/7 to get the hardwoods completed; and for a big surprise birthday present for my honey, I would install those French doors as well! As soon as she drove out of sight, I jumped in my car and made the now all-too-familiar drive to the Depot where, like an episode of Cheers, they really did all know my name. I went in and grabbed the closest thing to French doors I could find (I think they were from the Netherlands or someplace, but hey, we were on a budget) and was offto do some more damage. I had finally found an excuse to buy a sledgehammer, and as soon as I got home I started knocking out sheetrock. As I knocked away more and more sheetrock and more and more two-by-fours that seemed to be in the way of my Dutch doors, I felt this rush of excitement. My wife had only been gone for two hours and look at all of the progress I was making! I had torn down nearly 25 percent of the back of my house in no time at all—I felt like Bob Vila, and it was good.

No one had ever told me that demolition was much easier than building. No one had explained to me what a weight-bearing wall was. I also had not thought to do more than eye the width of the doors, so I had taken out a few more feet than was needed. As night fell, I had a huge hole in the back of my house and a set of Belgian doors that I had no idea how to install. Then it started to rain—sideways.

Maybe we will finish that story later, but I can report that Connie and I were able to still sell the house a couple of years later. So many times since this event I have tried to be a handyman around the house. I have tried to build fences, install ceiling fans, tear up linoleum floors— you name it. There is this innate desire within human beings that longs to be great at something. This is a God-given desire that pushes all of us toward goals and achievements in our life. I've learned that I should stay away from home improvement, but I believe that my efforts in that area are simply part of the desire God has placed in each of our hearts to become a great artist. By "artist" I don't just mean a person working with brushes and paint, or even with hammers and wood. An artist is someone—anyone— who creates and cultivates. It is someone who can step away and look at her work and know that she created the thing of beauty standing before her. I can see this knowledge in the bright eyes of my two-year-old daughter when she scribbles with crayons but in her mind's eye she is drawing a little girl holding a balloon (I know because she told me so). I can see it in myself—in the eyes a husband who desperately wants to show his wife how much he loves her, but in doing so destroys their home.

We all long to be great at something because the God who created us is an artist, and we are created in his image. The problem is many of us are trying to get great at the wrong things—and some of us are trying to get great at everything. We battle to become great at so many things that it seems like we focus on things in which we are not proficient to the exclusion of that one thing that is really our gift. We will have the opportunity to be good at many things in our lives, and most of the time "good enough" really is good enough. But in a few areas of our lives, God really does equip and call us to be great. We find at least one man who was different.

This man—the hero of this little book—is introduced in 1 Kings 7:13-14: King Solomon sent to Tyre and had Huram brought to him. Huram's mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali. His father was from Tyre and had been skilled in making things from bronze. Huram was also very skilled and experienced in bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and did all the bronze work. (1 Kings 7:13-14 NCV)

When I read the Old Testament I find that much of what we think is in the Bible, as far as detailed accounts of the personalities and characters of biblical men and women, is mostly conjecture on our part. The Bible does not give us a lot of insight into the thoughts of the patriarchs. So, when I read these stories I like to imagine what might have happened— nothing to change theology, mind you, just good imagination at work. It helps the Old Testament characters come alive to me.

As I read this account of Huram I imagine that from a very early age he started hanging around his father's shop and saw what the life of a metalworker was like. He saw the way that people treated metalworkers and how hard his father worked. In the agrarian caste society that serves as the backdrop of 1 Kings, it would be irresponsible for me to suggest that Huram had the opportunities that we have in the twenty-first century. But even in the caste society that Huram lived in one couldn't take away the imagination of a young boy. As his father was working hard I imagine that many times Huram was imagining what life would be like if he were drafted first round in the National Football League (work with me here, it's my imagination). I mean, a son of a tough union metalworker was probably a pretty tough kid himself. I bet he had the build of a linebacker and the mentality of a fullback. I imagine that as Huram began to grow and the child became a young man, reality began to set in. Like every young boy who finally realizes that the red cape will not really make him fly, he was confronted with who he was and the options that he really had in life. In today's world a young man born into poverty can be anything that he puts his mind to being. My dad is a metalworker. After about three weeks of working with him as a teenager it became obvious to both of us that metalwork was probably not a wise career choice for me. Huram probably did not have that choice.

When I was a kid, I really wanted to be a National Basketball Association player. The fact that I stopped growing at five feet ten inches in the tenth grade was not even the reason that I gave up on these aspirations. It was actually the fact that I got cut from the junior varsity team in eighth grade that served as the brutal wake-up call that professional basketball was not in my future. We have all had these moments, these reality checks, when we have to look at ourselves and know that God created us the way we are for a purpose. Unfortunately, it might not be the purpose we wanted it to be. I bet that Huram had that same wake-up call. He didn't have the choice to deny the family business and become a linebacker, but he did have the choice of how good a metalworker he would be. He had the choice to be an average metalworker who would then dutifully pass on the family business to his son, or to be a true artist. It was in this moment that the choice was made and Huram lived before us the artist's mandate.

By the time we meet Huram in 1 Kings 7:13, he is an adult, being called by the king to come and work on one of the largest building projects in the history of the world. He had chosen to get great at something many years ago and finally his opportunity had come.

what is great?

There is a lot of talk these days about being great. There are business books that teach us how to get from good to great; there are "how to" books to help us get great at just about anything in the world. Just the other day I went to a "how to" website and learned how to be great at folding a fitted sheet. The word great, like many words in the English language, is distorted by the fact that its scale of use is so varied that it begins to lose its luster.

"How was that waffle?" "Great."

"How was your time with God?" "Great."

"How are you at 'Guitar Hero'?" "Great."

"How are you at surgery, Doctor?" "Great."

Same great word, many great and different meanings. So how in the world are we supposed to define what great is? If we are to be in this wild pursuit of greatness, how do we know when great is great with a little g or great with a big G?

If the purpose of this book is just to say that we have the potential to be great at something—be it folding fitted sheets or performing brain surgery—then it would be best for me to stop writing and you to stop reading right now. I want to explore how we are to become great not just by the world's standards, but in the eyes of God. If we are to seek greatness for the purpose of becoming a masterpiece in the gallery of worship that shines back to our Creator, then we must start living the artist's mandate. In order for us to truly learn of the "big-G" great, we must follow Jesus and the new concept of greatness that he introduced to the world.

Jesus was teaching his friends about being "big-G" great when he sat them down and told them: "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:26-28 NIV).

This whole concept blew the doors off of the daydreams that the disciples had. They had been looking at the cosmic organization chart and saw Jesus at the top, and right below him they had penciled in themselves. It was just a matter of working out who would get the coveted corner office, what the titles would be, and what the 401k would look like. But then Jesus turned the table on all of the daydreams and gave them a picture of what a life of true greatness would look like. Have you ever found yourself wishing that you could do something truly meaningful with your life? That you could be great at something that would leave a legacy? Do you ever find yourself thinking about being great by being a servant to your husband? By meeting the needs of your wife? By washing the feet of your children? By loving your enemies at work and serving your competition on the sales team? This is the new great.

During a small-group session in our home we were taking prayer requests. One couple's request really jumped out at me. Their concern was that where they currently were in life was not where they imagined that they would be. Financial turmoil, some bad decisions, and some tragedy in their lives had severely derailed their plan. This couple has truly been through some of the most trying times that you can imagine. As we sat and talked about what the last year had looked like in their lives, the wife confessed through tears and even some laughter how her preschooler had told her earlier that day, "Mom, I am smarter than you," and how that had just been the straw that broke her emotional back. Listening, I realized that what she really wanted to know was that she was great at something. Currently unemployed and still reeling from the tragedy of losing an infant, she just wanted to know that her life counted. She just wanted to create something of worth, to be great at something. She was forgetting that for the last year she had been a great mom to her two surviving children and a helpmate in the purest sense to her husband. She had not done anything that the world would have considered great. In fact, leaving her high-powered position in the corporate world because of the tragedy in her life was actually not great at all in the world's eyes. But here is the good news: we do not live by the world's standard. We live by Jesus' standard—a new kind of great.

In times like these in my own life I often find myself daydreaming about being a major-league sports coach or player, a rock star, or politician. Maybe I could speak to an arena filled with thousands of people, or perhaps I could write the next best-selling book. (Hey, maybe you're reading it now!) These daydreams always seem to take me on a journey into places that I have never been, and in my dreams I am blessed with skills that I have never had.

I rarely find myself daydreaming about being a great servant—floating away in the clouds about being a better husband to my wife by carrying my weight around the house. It's not often that I daydream about being a great playmate at a park on a Sunday afternoon with my little girl crawling in the dirt, rather than about being a great coach, watching grown men crawling around on the dirt of a football field.

But in order to get great at something, it seems that God intends for us to build upon the foundation of skills and wisdom that he has given us, and not just daydream of skills and talents that we wish we had. He intends for us to use the greatness that he has given us to serve others. What the young mom in my small group needed to hear was that in being a great mom, and a great wife, and the best employee that she can be, she is an artist, creating something of worth within her own family and making an impact on the world around her.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from 200 Pomegranates and an Audience of One by Shawn Wood. Copyright © 2008 Abingdon Press. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0687654920
• ISBN 13: 9780687654925
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 125