I saw that question on a bumper sticker the other day and I chuckled.  It brought back childhood memories of the skating rink.  I was never really good at roller skating, but I loved trying to do the Hokey Pokey on skates.

As I thought about the bumper sticker, I thought life really is like the Hokey Pokey.  We put our arm in and test the waters of some new adventure, new relationship, new food and such.  We pull our arm quickly out afraid of whatever it was we sampled.  What are we so afraid of?  We might get hurt?  We might look like a fool for trying something new?  We might fall down?

We continue this way through life, only doing things part way.  We don’t fully commit to most things.  We just glimpse the surface doing what’s necessary to get by.  We don’t fully engage at work, we don’t invest in relationships.  All the while trying to keep our balance and not look like a fool to the rest of the world.

In part of the Hokey Pokey we put our head in, we take our head out, we put our head in and we shake it all about.  How often do we put our head (mind) into something but not our heart?  We are willing to write a check to an organization to help others, but it would involve our heart to actually serve at a shelter or soup kitchen.

“Beethoven’s music teacher once told him that as a composer, he was hopeless.  Winston Churchill failed the 6th grade.  Walt Disney was fired by the editor of a newspaper because he, Disney, had “no good ideas”.  When Thomas Edison was a boy his teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything.   Henry Ford’s first two automobile businesses failed.  Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.”  (Educationask.com)

The answer is at the end of the song: you put your whole self in.  Until we are willing to put our whole self in and fully commit we will never fully experience life.  Until we love with total abandon we will never know the peace of unconditional love. Until we give our whole self to a belief we will never know the entire joy that our faith can bring.

Many great men and women were thought a fool, but they got back up and threw their whole self in.  Are you willing to put your whole self in?   Are you willing to fall down a few times, look like a fool possibly and be told you failed?  Are you willing to get back up and try again?   What if these men had accepted defeat?  What if Christopher Columbus pulled his boat out of the water when the first storm arose at sea?  What if western settlers turned around when they faced that first Indiana blizzard?  What if the people who have inspired you fell and didn’t get back up?

I wonder where the world would be if Christ had not been so willing to put His whole self in?  What if He had stopped when He fell attempting to carry His cross to Calvary?  He had been beaten beyond recognition, He was tired and the sins of the world rested on His shoulders.  He was the object of total public humiliation and yet He got back up and continued that path set before Him with joy.  Christ was fully committed to dying for our sins.  He put His whole self in.  Many thought Him a fool.  Are you willing to be a fool for Christ?

What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it’s all about?  Take a leap of faith and put your whole self in.  Trust me, if you fall, God will help you back up again and again and again.