Recently I began pondering the meaning conveyed by a bumper sticker I saw, “what if the hokey pokey IS what it’s all about?” At first I laughed. I love a good twist of a phrase, the subtle double entendre that this phrase suggests. It sounded silly at first, but it suggested to me that the meaning of life is undetermined, and maybe undeterminable, at least by the one who embraces that saying. So…if uncertainty about life exists, how can we come to resolution on the question?

While pondering this thought, I came across this passage of scripture in II Chron. 17:9. After becoming king in Judah, Jehoshaphat appointed a group of officials and Levites to go throughout Judah…”taking with them the Book of the Law of the Lord; they went around to all the towns of Judah and taught the people.” These “circuit riding preachers” kept the body of the truth of God present in the daily living and practices of the Israelites. The importance of the Levites going on their circuit throughout Judah can be seen by juxtaposing Judah and Israel. Without a commitment to God and His Word (the Law), Israel rapidly descended in to moral and spiritual debauchery and evil of every kind. Unfortunately Judah was right behind their northern cousins because they did not keep up a belief system with God and the Law at the center of their culture and daily lives. A society without a firm anchor of truth, without the boundaries and signposts of God, His plan and purpose for mankind and their adherence to that purpose, easily becomes decadent and depraved.  Everyone can decide for himself what is true, what is real and what is of value. Without God and His Word, morality is determined by Godless humanistic standards.

In that context, the question “what if the hokey pokey IS what it’s all about?” becomes an expression of the hopelessness one experiences living in a society without morality rooted in the absolute truth of God and His Word.