There is a cute little cartoon on the door of a hospital administrator’s office with the caption under the picture saying, ”I can only do twelve things at once.”

This is amusing because it is so ridiculous. As we all know, we can really only do one thing at a time, but we sometimes 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 of the flower 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 an efficiency expert was paid a fee of $25,000 to teach the president of U.S. Steel 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 one #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 one thing I do” was the key. This simple idea so impressed the president that he paid the extraordinary fee of $25,000.00 for the idea.

Had he read Philippians he could have learned from the pen of God’s inspired writer this same lesson.

The next point to remember is that Paul said to forget the things which are behind. Many people live in the past and think of what might have been. The past is behind us and we should not look back. Forget it, and reach forward is the advice of Paul. In sports many a race has been lost by looking back. In life, don’t look back unless you plan on going that way. Lot’s wife is a tragic example of looking in the wrong direction.

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 many lose due to lack of concentration. It is amazing how much concentration is required to be successful in almost every sport. ”Keep your eye on the ball,” ”Think only of the goal,” ”Press on to victory,” these are the battle cries of every competitor.

Now the world does this to win a corruptible crown. Paul reminds us that we have an incorruptible crown laid up for those who forget the past, concentrate upon the goal and press on 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 should perish. We can all receive the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge shall give Paul at that day, but not to him only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

The key to winning is not our cleverness, not our athletic ability, but simply our desire to do one thing. That one thing is to ”press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

”So run that ye may obtain”