The Limbo Dance

In the 60s, my parents would have cookouts on our California lanai patio with after-dinner "make your own entertainment." Included in the line-up was my father playing his guitar (ala the Kingston Trio), toddler kids spinning hula hoops, and everyone trying to do the new dance called the limbo.

The limbo worked like this. Two volunteers would hold either side of a long bar at about waist's height. While the Caribbean music played, each limbo participant would bend his or her body backwards, scooting their legs and bent torso under the bar. After each turn the bar was lowered. If a player touched the bar with his shoulders or chest, he was disqualified.

Now limbo, as a game, is great fun. It breaks the ice and has people cheering on their fellow party guests. Unfortunately, limbo in life isn't much fun. When we can't sell our house or find a job, limbo frustration seeps in.

Bitterness often follows frustration. We ask: Why didn't we sell our house sooner? Why did we put so much money into remodeling the kitchen? Why did my company downsize just when I started? And the universal question: What happened to my 401K? These are familiar questions as our country slogs through this recession.

Answering the "Why?"

Life limbo, as painful as it seems, allows us to see the important things. Just like the limbo song asks the player, "How low can you go?" we feel that life is asking the same question and want to scream, "No lower!"

But standing mid-thigh in life's crises, we realize we can bend more than we dreamed. In Limbo-Land we learn to flex our rigid spending habits and discover we won't break. We can be happy with less money or a smaller house. We discover how a marriage can weather the unemployment storm with the relationship still intact. Resilience, an underrated quality, can take a person a long way in life.

Second Corinthians 4:8-9 says: "We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed."

Paul, the writer of the letter to the Corinthians and an experienced sufferer for Christ (jailed, stoned, run out of town, nearly downed, and abandoned by several fellow workers), answered the "why?" question in the next verse: "Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies" (verse 10).

What the apostle is saying to our cushy, easy-loving culture is clear. The suffering we experience, which we carry around in our physical body or mind, reminds us of what Jesus did. But Paul didn't stop there. He went on to explain how God reveals life in our mortal body. This means we can experience resurrection life in this life!

Becoming More Flexible

As a practicing Christian (and I do mean I'm still practicing), I've gone through two years of the limbo dance. Because of several job changes and two stubborn houses that wouldn't sell until the price dipped below market value, I've battled through the gauntlet of anger, depression, self-introspection and apathy.

Amazingly, I finally laid down the burden and bent my body a little lower to squeeze under the limbo pole. To my shock, I didn't crack in half. I didn't even throw my middle-aged back out of whack. As soon as I stopped fussing and resenting my circumstances and realized he raises and lowers the bar, I started enjoying his peace.

I'd love to keep the bar high so I don't strain while going underneath. But he knows I can bend and become a more flexible disciple for his kingdom. A life of ease isn't the name of the game when we sign our life over to him—a life of meaning is. When we sign up to be disciples of Jesus, we commit to making our life count for something dearer than comfort.

My challenge for you and me: recognize the temporariness of tribulations. Be of good cheer—the limbo dance won't last forever, and we can emerge at the end of the dance a different person, more usable and flexible for Jesus.

Backbends anyone?

Carol G. Stratton has written for several publications including, Grand Rapids Press, In Touch, Forsyth Women, and Your Church magazines. She has developed a website to help women relocate: www.ChangingZipCodes.com.

Read more articles that highlight writing by Christian women at ChristianityToday.com/Women