She has developed a website to help women relocate: Copyright © 2010 by the author or Christianity Today/. Stratton has written for several publications including, Grand Rapids Press, In Touch, Forsyth Women, and Your Church magazines. 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.Ĭarol G. My challenge for you and me: recognize the temporariness of tribulations. When we sign up to be disciples of Jesus, we commit to making our life count for something dearer than comfort. A life of ease isn't the name of the game when we sign our life over to him-a life of meaning is. But he knows I can bend and become a more flexible disciple for his kingdom. I'd love to keep the bar high so I don't strain while going underneath. As soon as I stopped fussing and resenting my circumstances and realized he raises and lowers the bar, I started enjoying his peace. I didn't even throw my middle-aged back out of whack. 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.Īmazingly, I finally laid down the burden and bent my body a little lower to squeeze under the limbo pole. This means we can experience resurrection life in this life!Īs a practicing Christian (and I do mean I'm still practicing), I've gone through two years of the limbo dance. He went on to explain how God reveals life in our mortal body. The suffering we experience, which we carry around in our physical body or mind, reminds us of what Jesus did. What the apostle is saying to our cushy, easy-loving culture is clear. 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). We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed." We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. Second Corinthians 4:8-9 says: "We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. Resilience, an underrated quality, can take a person a long way in life. We discover how a marriage can weather the unemployment storm with the relationship still intact. We can be happy with less money or a smaller house. In Limbo-Land we learn to flex our rigid spending habits and discover we won't break. 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!"īut standing mid-thigh in life's crises, we realize we can bend more than we dreamed. Life limbo, as painful as it seems, allows us to see the important things. 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. When we can't sell our house or find a job, limbo frustration seeps in.īitterness often follows frustration. Unfortunately, limbo in life isn't much fun. It breaks the ice and has people cheering on their fellow party guests. If a player touched the bar with his shoulders or chest, he was disqualified. While the Caribbean music played, each limbo participant would bend his or her body backwards, scooting their legs and bent torso under the bar. Two volunteers would hold either side of a long bar at about waist's height. 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.
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