Paula Marolewski, Perkiomenville
“Grow strong. Stand tall. Bear fruit. Sink your roots!”
That sums up my passion: to help others grow strong in the Lord, stand tall for what they believe, bear good fruit in their life, and sink their roots into the Word of God. It is from this passion that my website, www.SinkYourRoots.com, has come into being.
I have been in love with the written word for as long as I can remember. As early as my teen years, I knew that it was my calling to use my gift of writing to teach others in the faith and to help them “grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ” (II Peter 3:18). Out of this conviction, I took my degree in Creative Writing at Houghton College and never looked back.
Originally, I focused on Christian fiction and wrote two novels, Meditations of a Slave and Wasteland. My goal in both of these works is to address serious issues of Christian faith; including the nature of obedience, the challenge of doubt, and the miracle of redemption. I firmly believe it is vital that we move beyond the shallow waters of triviality into a continually deepening maturity through an intimate knowledge of the Word of God. Fiction is a fantastic way to explore the intersection of life, suffering, theology, and our relationship with the living God.
From there, I moved into developing challenging, in-depth Bible studies, including Good vs. Evil: The Discipline of Discernment and Running the Race: A Look at the Life in Christ from the Book of Romans. Once again, the driving force behind these studies is to help people take hold of the unbelievable riches of the Scriptures and apply them in transformative power to their lives. Only when we understand what the Bible truly says can we believe it and live it in such a way that the Kingdom of God will go forth victoriously in the world.
My most recent work, released this past July, is of an intensely personal nature; it is entitled Fire in My Mind: Personal Insights & Practical Help for Severe Anxiety.
To be truthful, I fought the Lord when he first suggested that I write about my struggle with severe anxiety. But then I thought very carefully. Here’s the unfortunate facts: mental and emotional disorders, including severe anxiety, carry with them a tremendous social stigma. People don’t mind admitting that they have diabetes or cancer, but we don’t want to tell anyone if we have a problem that is located in our mind or brain or emotions.
The result of this social stigma is ignorance: people don’t understand severe anxiety, don’t recognize it, don’t know what to do when they have it, and don’t know how to help others who suffer from it. I personally suffered from severe anxiety for three years before I could put a name to the problem. Then it took me an additional two years to find help and learn tools and techniques to address my anxiety.
To the very core of my being, I want to help others avoid the pain which I experienced. I long to help people recognize severe anxiety. To learn tools to help them cope. To show them the solid foundation of Scripture that they can build their lives on. To enable them to teach their friends and family how to effectively support and encourage them through their journey.
Fire in My Mind is written for this purpose. In it, people can see directly into my mind as I struggled with racing thoughts, shame, fear, irrationality, doubt, anger, exhaustion, and loneliness. They can then find practical tools and techniques to address those issues, theological meditations on Scripture passages, and prayers to help focus their minds on the Lord.
My deep prayer is that Sink Your Roots and the Bible studies, Christian fiction, articles, devotionals, and blog postings that are on it will be used powerfully by the Lord to further his Kingdom. This is my purpose and my passion, and yet, while the writings on Sink Your Roots are from my pen, the ministry involves many, many people. People who pray, who support, who encourage, who spread the word. I humbly hope and pray that you would join with me in prayer that God’s Word would go forth through Sink Your Roots – for those prayers you have my deepest thanks.
The opinions expressed in articles posted on Mosaic’s website are those of the author and may not reflect the official policy of Mosaic Conference. Mosaic is a large conference, crossing ethnicities, geographies, generations, theologies, and politics. Each person can only speak for themselves; no one can represent “the conference.” May God give us the grace to hear what the Spirit is speaking to us through people with whom we disagree and the humility and courage to love one another even when those disagreements can’t be bridged.