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By Paula Marolewski, February 18, 2012 11:12 am

Welcome to the Sink Your Roots blog! I welcome you to download all the contents of this blog plus the articles and Seedlings available on www.SinkYourRoots.com in two convenient free ebooks:  

Seedlings take just a minute or two to read – but you may ponder them for hours, if not days! Now you can download all the Sink Your Roots’ Seedlings in one convenient ebook. Download Seedlings Ebook Now 

Enjoy Sink Your Roots’ articles and blog posts? Download this convenient collection – divided into convenient categories for easy reference. Download Grow! Ebook Now 

Please pass this information on to your friends, family, and church members and let them know about Sink Your Roots!

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By Paula Marolewski, February 18, 2012 11:09 am

This is the last post on this blog for perhaps quite a while. I’d like to close up the blog with a song I wrote based on Paul’s word in Philippians chapter 3: “One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

That should be our goal, always. One thing. One thing only.

I welcome you to download the melody and simple chording here. May God guide, strengthen, and bless you daily!

One Thing I Do

by Paula Marolewski

Verse 1:

Lord, I come to you, with my past and with my pain –

With all the guilt I feel inside, all my failures, all my shame.

And I lay down all of this darkness, all the hurts and all the sin,

I give them up, set them all aside, and pledge to you again …

Chorus:

That one thing I do – forgetting what lies behind.

Just one thing I do – pressing onward all the time

Yes, one thing I do – reaching upward for the prize:

For the prize of the call in Jesus Christ –

For the prize of the call in Jesus Christ.

Verse 2:

And Lord, I come to you, with the victories I’ve won –

All the best I am and have ever been, all the works for you I’ve done.

These, too, I lay aside lest they stop me on the way –

Lest they weigh me down or turn my eyes from serving you this day …

Chorus:

So one thing I do – forgetting what lies behind.

Just one thing I do – pressing onward all the time

Yes, one thing I do – reaching upward for the prize:

For the prize of the call in Jesus Christ –

For the prize of the call in Jesus Christ.

Bridge:

There’s nothing in life that’s too great a cost,

Nothing that I won’t give up for lost.

No sacrifice that I will not give

That in you I might live!

All of my dreams, every hope I have planned –

I put them all in your loving hand.

May each step that I take be right there with you

And the song that I sing be “One thing I do!” …

Chorus:

Oh, one thing I do – forgetting what lies behind.

Just one thing I do – pressing onward all the time

Yes, one thing I do – reaching upward for the prize:

For the prize of the call in Jesus Christ –

For the prize of the call

For the prize of the call

For the prize of the call in Jesus Christ!

Copyright 2008 Paula Marolewski, all rights reserved.

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By Paula Marolewski, February 18, 2012 10:59 am

On rare occasions, I write songs. I’d like to share this one with you, entitled “Lord of the Pieces.” It was written out of pain and to comfort another who was in pain. For the melody and simple chording, please download the music here.

Lord of the Pieces

By Paula Marolewski

Where is the peace when my life is in pieces?

What can I do when hope lies crushed on the ground?

Where can I turn when my dreams have been shattered?

When what I have lost will never be found?

Some people tell me You’ll fix all the pieces,

That everything always comes right in the end.

But while I know that Your hand is at work here,

I also believe that some things just will not mend.

That’s why You must be …

Lord of the pieces before You’re Lord of my peace.

I’ve got to give You all the brokenness

Before I find release.

Take each and every shattered part,

Decide what You will do –

To mend and fix, to heal and change …

Or to leave them … broken through.

With all of my soul, I wish that time could go backward

That I’d never know the pain that daily I find.

In the night I’m tormented by doubt and by worry –

I can’t seem to stop the thoughts that whirl in my mind.

Lord, hear the prayer of Your struggling child,

In all of my sorrow help me to see:

That You bore my pain as You wept in the garden

And still in Your hands You wear the scars from the tree.

That’s why I’ll …

Give you the pieces, O Lord of my peace.

It is in Your brokenness

That I find my release.

Take each and every shattered part,

Decide what You will do –

I put them in Your nail-scarred hands,

For Lord, I trust in You.

Copyright 2006 Paula Marolewski, all rights reserved.

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By Paula Marolewski, February 12, 2012 2:58 pm

When we think about God’s call on our life, we tend to think of it in terms of inspiration, joy, fulfillment, and purpose. And it is all those things. But we should not forget one other important thing: 

God’s call and our ministry will require grim, iron determination.

This is a word both of warning and of encouragement. If you follow God’s call and immerse yourself in ministry (as all of us must – this is not just for pastors and missionaries!), you will experience suffering. Obstacles. Persecution. Disappointment. Conflict. 

There will be times when your soul seems barren and your ministry pointless. When the world is loud and God is silent. When hope seems a phantom and the future appears bleak.

Consider Paul’s words in II Corinthians 4:7-12:

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.

There is the encouragement. We have this treasure – the treasure of the gospel, of ministry, of calling – and no matter what Satan throws our way, we will not be crushed, have no cause for despair, will never be forsaken, cannot be destroyed.

It will take everything you have, given sometimes with grim, iron determination. But the result will be the life of Jesus – manifested in and through you to a dying world.

© 2012 Paula Marolewski, www.SinkYourRoots.com

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