Life's Ultimae WAMI

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t is called a WAMI, a small white plaque that is the envy and the ultimate goal of everyone who comes to hike the backcountry of Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.  Every year, thousands upon thousands of people, very young and not so young, come to the mountains to test their skills, to learn about teamwork, to succeed in a difficult endeavor, to stick out their chests, and to assure others that they too can complete their journey and win that WAMI.

I guess it would be more helpful if I actually clarified what WAMI means.  The acronym means We All Made It and is awarded on the last day of the trek as hikers return to base camp after their ten-day-jaunt in the backcountry. The only way to obtain the WAMI is to leave base camp and spend the next several days challenging one’s self and learning to be part of a team.

All though the WAMI is awarded to the group as a whole, each individual must return to base camp.  In other words, before the group can make it, each individual has to make it.  He must determine from the outset that he will succeed in this challenge.  He must lay everything else aside, forget what has happened in the past and push forward toward the end of the trail.  This is something the hiker must do daily.  Each morning he must ready himself for the day’s climb, remembering the lessons from the previous day but not dwelling on the difficulties or the successes it held for him.  Today is a new day, filled with its own set of unknowns and he must continue to press forward if he is to earn that plaque. 

On the trail, there are only two choices; either one is headed forward, toward the goal or he is walking backward, toward his starting point.  In the first instance, he is making progress, testing his strength, challenging himself, pressing on toward his goal. In the second situation, the hiker has given up, he has accepted defeat, and he is retreating, making no forward progress but paying for the same piece of ground twice.  There is nothing more difficult to observe than a young man or woman who decides to leave the trail and after some reflection realizes he/she could have made it!

This is exactly the idea the Apostle Paul communicated in Philippians 3:12-14, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

In reading this passage it becomes obvious that Paul does not believe himself to have finished the race nor to have learned everything God has to teach him.  He realizes that the Christian walk is a journey, a journey that constantly moves us forward, taking us to greater heights, toning and conditioning our souls, and molding us into the very image of Christ which is God’s ultimate goal for us according to Romans 8:28-29.  So Paul determines that he will continue on this journey, pursuing the call God placed on his life, seeking to know Christ in all his fullness.

Notice Paul’s advice to those who walk with Christ.  His walk centers around one solitary goal, “forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.”  Paul admonishes the readers of this letter, including us today, to make Jesus our one and only goal.  We must learn from our walk with him, we must remember all the lessons he teaches us, but we must never dwell on the past—neither on its failures nor on its successes.  We must use what God teaches us to move continually forward, climbing ever higher to experience all God has for us. 

Paul knew this to be the secret to the successful life in Christ.  But he also knew that the road is not always easy.  Note his use of the word strain.  Sometimes that is exactly what life is, a strain.  But it is only through straining our muscles, it is only through straining our faith, and it is only through straining our trust, that God grows us into spiritual maturity.

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here are you in your walk with Jesus today?  Are you pressing toward the goal?  Are you moving forward?  Are you determined to see the journey to its end, to receive the prize God has for you?  Remember, we are either moving forward with Christ or we are losing ground, there is no other option.  At times we are asked to halt our forward progress for a rest, but taking a rest is a far cry from turning around and heading down the mountain.  God has called us to a walk with Him.  It is a journey He knows we can make.  Let us determine to see it to its end so that one day we too will know the joy of obtaining life’s ultimate WAMI!