...and now looks a little bit more like this.
Never mind that my current to-do list has approximately 1,000+ projects on it, or that there are 99 boxes pushed against the wall/hiding from the camera's lens. For now, I must content myself with the knowledge that patches of floor are slowly but surely bursting through the covering of packing materials. Can't ask for much more than that.
Before I get too far into detailing our apartment overhaul, though, I'd like to introduce a new page: The Well.
The ultimate Well is Jesus Christ, by whom we as Christians are filled, purified, and poured out over the world as thirst-quenchers and drought-enders. On this blog, The Well will function as a collection zone for spiritually-centered posts. A place where you can click to—prayerfully—be filled as you read God-stories and words of inspiration written by both myself and other contributors.
"...But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:14
"The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." Isaiah 58:11
"I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint." Jeremiah 31:25
In March of this year, I began to feel called to really use my writing for the Lord. This seems obvious, right? After all, aren't we supposed to use all of our giftings for Him?
Well, yeah. But in my life, here's what tends to happen:
An idea starts to take shape in my mind—for a novel, or an article, a blog. The trigger doesn't matter. What matters is that so often, I take that idea and instantly begin to roll it around in my hands, to polish it, to make it shine. I dream about what that idea could do for me. How much money I could make off of it, or how many people would know my name because of it. I think about what people would say when they discover that I, Karley, had come up with that idea. If they would praise me; if they would affirm me. If I would be invited onto television shows to talk about it. If being the owner of that idea-turned-reality would give me the sense of worthiness and approval I so often seek. Me-me-me-me, I-I-I-I.
I love the Lord. With all of my heart, I crave His presence in my life and a deeper knowledge of who He is. So why is it so easy for me to create idols out of nothingness?
Here is the answer He lovingly brings me back to, again and again and again: Because I'm made to worship—but the focus of that worship and attention can only ever be Him.
How many times did the Israelites turn their eyes from the covering of God to construct and bow down to a golden calf? How many times do I take the gifts He has given me and begin to view them as pieces of my identity, or vehicles to my own fame, rather than tools that can be used to speak to the beauty of His name?
I don't believe that we have to abandon the pursuits we're passionate about to follow God. But if we don't direct our gaze toward Him in the midst of those pursuits; if we fail to make the the goal of our efforts His fame and renown, rather than our own, we will never find fulfillment...no matter how high we climb. We were not made to showcase our own glory. We were made to be shown His, and to broadcast that glorious light to a dark and empty world.
This is why I need The Well.
If you would like to write an article of encouragement or inspiration to be featured on The Well, please send me an email at karleykiker@gmail.com, and be sure to include a few words detailing your topic or idea.
The thing is, we all have a story to share...and you never know who needs to hear yours.
*Note: Submitted content may be edited for length and/or grammar + clarity.
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Father, today, would you show us Your glory! Would you turn our eyes from ourselves, and by your grace let us look to You. Show us how to use the strengths you've given us to magnify Your name, rather than our own. You are good!
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