A cute little cartoon on a hospital administrator’s office had this caption under the picture, “I can only do 12 things at once.” While amusing, it is also ridiculous. As we all know, we can really only do one thing at a time, but sometimes we need to be reminded of this fact. Perhaps when we have had twelve things to do at once, we have flitted from one to the other like a bee going from blossom to blossom, only accomplishing much less than the bee which was extracting the nectar from the flowers while we simply kept everything stirred up and completed nothing. 
Paul gives us the advice we need to follow when we are in this condition. He told the Philippians, “this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” “This one thing I do,” is the key to success. We cannot do twelve things at once. We must decide what is important and do that. 
Many years ago, a business consultant was paid $25,000.00 to teach the president of a big corporation to make a list of all the things he wanted to accomplish during the day, then to go back through the list and number them, giving the most important task #1, and the next most important task #2, and so on. Then he was told to begin and do one thing only, the #1 task and not to think about any of the others on the list until it was completed. This simple idea so impressed the president that he paid the extraordinary fee of $25,000 for the idea! Had he read Philippians, he could have learned from the pen of God’s inspired writer this same lesson for free! 
The important thing that Paul did was to concentrate on one thing. By keeping his eye on the goal, he pressed toward the mark. In sports if you lose your concentration, you lose. It is amazing how much concentration is required to be successful in every sport. “Keep your eye on the ball,” “Think only of the goal,” “Press on to victory,” are the battle cries of every competitor. 
Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius watched as his protégé Maximus conquered a tremendous invading army, not by sheer force, but with a brilliant and disarming military strategy. They had a plan and executed it flawlessly. The Green Bay Packers of 1958 went from the humiliation of being the worst team in the league to nine phenomenal winning seasons and two Super Bowl victories because of the leadership of one man – Vince Lombardi. His winning strategy was their singular focus on just one goal: to win games. 
Now the world does this to win a corruptible crown, but Paul reminds us that we have an incorruptible crown laid up for those who forget the past, concentrate upon the goal, and press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. In the races of this life, the winner automatically makes the rest losers, but in the race for eternal life, God is not willing that any lose.

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