Gold Nugget 227 - This One Thing
Indeed, dissatisfaction with present attainments is the spring of all advancement in everything in life. Dissatisfied with huts, men build houses; with the loose skin of beast for their covering, they manufacture garments; with calligraphy, they invent the printing-press; with wagons, they construct steam-engines. He who feels satisfied with what he has, whether it be material, mental, or spiritual, will never seek to lay hold of something yet unattained. …
The Olympic racer did not look behind him on the course, but on to the goal until he reached and grasped the pole. In soul-onwardness there must be a comparative obliviousness. … Of course there must be and ought to be remembrances of past mercies to inspire our gratitude, of past sins to humble us before God. But attention to the past should be as nothing to that which we give to the future. Let the past go: it is irreparable and unavailing; the grand future must loom before us and absorb the soul. Look not behind you. Keep your eyes right onward upon the enchanting scenes that are spread out on the sunny heights. …
The prize of the Grecian racer was a garland of olive, or laurel, or pine, or apple. What is the moral prize? Moral perfection. To this all men are divinely called in Christ. In the true moral race men are to reach forth, not after happiness as an end, but after holiness; not after Paradise, but after perfection. This requires concentration. There must be no half-heartedness, no divided faculties; it must be the one thing; the whole soul must be set upon it.
The attainment of holiness must be the “one thing” in life. Learning, literature, business, recreation, must be rendered subservient to this “one thing.”
The Pulpit Commentary, Philippians p. 144-145, Philippians 3:12-14, (D. Thomas)
Gold Nugget 227
This One Thing
