… the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network, decorating the bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars) – 2 Chronicles 4:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 7, 2016): 2 Chronicles 4

I want to be noticed. I hope I am not unusual. I want to be known for doing something right. It is probably one of the hardest things that we have to deal with when things go wrong because it is this deep desire inside of us goes unfulfilled. And while I really believe that this need to be noticed is built into each one of us – it can also become a drug that addicts us and brings us under its control. We begin to do things only because they will get us noticed. We live for the “likes” on our Facebook page or the retweets on twitter. Our pride is bruised when no I want to be noticed. I hope I am not unusual. I want to be known for doing something right. It is probably one of the hardest things that we have to deal with when things go wrong. It is this deep desire inside of us goes unfulfilled. And while I really believe that this need to be noticed is built into each one of us – it can also become a drug that addicts us and brings us under its control. We begin to do things only because they will get us noticed. Our pride is bruised when it fails. And so we try harder the next day.

So, 400 pomegranates carved onto two pillars, twenty-seven feet in the air, onto a place where absolutely no one will see them. For anyone caught up in a “look at me” culture, the question that remains would be “why bother?” Except that the pomegranates aren’t exactly carved where no one will see them – they are carved where only God will see them.

A while back Shawn Wood wrote a book called “200 Pomegranates and an Audience of One.” His premise is that all of us have something in our lives that we need to carve for an audience of one. All of us have pomegranates to carve somewhere in our lives in a place where only God will ever see them. And the process of carving those pomegranates is incredibly important. When we find that place where we are doing something only for God – then we begin to be a real influence on those around us. And it is a great place to start to break the addiction of the look at me culture.

So what are you doing for an audience of one? Have you started to carve your pomegranates in that secret place where only God can see them?

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 5