Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead (Phil. 3:13).
Never take a verse out of context… but I do like to take this one in a direction that Paul did not intend, so for the purpose of this post here is my major out of context phrase:
This one thing I do.
Each year, simply because it is a convenient turning point for me I try to home in on what is the one thing I need to focus on and seek to put an effort in to fulfil that. Of course, a good retort is ‘one thing? how lazy are you Martin?’. Good question so my response…
I hope I manage to move 20+ things forward this year from where they are to a new level, but I think that if I try and move 20+ things forward they might move but only in a small way. I have found that if I find my priority in a season it seems to act like the front end of a wedge and opens the way for other things to be achieved. Once the ‘one thing’ gets some movement then I can seriously consider the other ‘things’, but until then I am not too interested in speculating too much as to what I should do with them.
I could go on to bore you with what the one thing is, how it is beginning to move, and the two aspects right behind that one thing that are beginning to come in to focus, but when have I ever bored anyone?!! So I leave it there, hope it resonate in some way – no ‘right way of moving things forward’, particularly as I butchered that verse, so apologies to Mr. P.