Dick Sheets had it all—a successful career, a beautiful home, nice cars and yearly vacations to exotic locations around the world.  After 20 years of living in the fast lane, however, Dick realized that there was more to life than acquiring and accumulating material possessions.  He finally came to understand that God had a different plan for him.

            
Ever since he was a child, art was Dick’s first love.  After earning a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Ohio State University, he pursued a career as an illustrator, designer and art director.  Eventually he moved into real estate, developing residential communities across the country.  But there was something missing. “I didn’t handle my success very well,” he says.  “I wasn’t conducting my life with the proper focus, and I wasn’t trusting in the Lord and what I knew He wanted.”

It was his wife Judy who helped alter the path of Dick’s career—and his life.  She suggested that he use the artistic gifts that God had blessed him with.  At the same time, after completing a large real estate venture, he couldn’t find a new job.  Dick, who had not picked up a paintbrush since before he was married, went back to the drawing table.  And one of his first works was a colorful calligraphy of a verse from Luke: “Not my will but thine be done.”

Eventually Dick found other real estate jobs, but he didn’t find them to be very rewarding.  It was clear to him that the Lord was pulling him in a different direction.  In 1996, he moved his family from Sarasota to Augusta, and began working full-time as a Christian artist.  After making the commitment to follow God’s path, Dick started getting real estate job offers.  The temptation was great, but despite the fact that he needed the money, Dick turned them all down.   “I finally learned to put my trust in the Lord, to be Christ-centered instead of self-centered.”

Most of his work expresses a Christian theme and displays quotes from Scripture.   “God has given me the ability to glorify His name, and he fills me with ideas every day.  I get great satisfaction knowing that I’m finally doing what the Lord wants me to do.” Dick Sheets, who is blessed by God with great talent, blesses us with his inspiring story.