They say that a sense of humor can help save the day and ease tensions during difficult times. I think God has a sense of humor. After all, He created us funny people.

Several years back, my husband Andy and I were going through a very stressful time. With three small children and number four due in a few weeks, circumstances were such that we needed to move out of the house we were living in. One after another, all of our options for new housing had fallen through. I felt like Mary on Christmas Eve, when she and Joseph were told there was no room for them at the inn.

With each passing day, things seemed to go from bad to worse and our situation became more desperate. I had tried to keep faith, tried to stay positive, but couldn’t help getting discouraged. What was wrong? We had prayed so hard. How much worse could things get?

Then I had the strangest revelation. I knew it was God applying His sense of humor to an otherwise serious situation. I heard Jesus saying to me in true limbo-dance style and rhythm, “How low can you go? How low can you go?”

Life’s struggles are not meant to crush us. They are the challenges that help us to grow, the stretching of the muscles that make us more limber so we can play limbo like a pro.

In case you aren’t familiar with the limbo, it’s a dance that originated in the West Indies—a sort of high jump in reverse. The dancers form a single file, bend backward from the knees, and move with a shuffling step under a horizontal bar that is lowered after each successive pass. Dancers are eliminated when they knock the bar from the uprights or fail to keep their balance as they pass under the bar. The dancer who goes under the lowest bar is the winner.

I had to laugh as I imagined that limbo rod being lowered to the next rung. It gave me new courage to face my problems as a challenge. “How low can you go?”—Not in a bad or despairing way, but in a fun way.

Life’s struggles are not meant to crush us. They are the challenges that help us to grow, the stretching of the muscles that make us more limber so we can play limbo like a pro.

I put on my smile. I lifted my chin and said, “I can do this. I can go a little lower. I haven’t fallen yet, and I’m still in the game!” Each time more bad news came and things got a little worse, I would smile at Andy and say, “How low can you go?” It became sort of a joke and certainly helped to take the fear and tension away.

You see, I was cheating. I knew that Jesus, who had the sense of humor to give me this revelation, also had His hand under my back so I couldn’t fall. He had it all under control, and all I had to do was play along. By this time I was feeling quite proud of myself for dancing the limbo so professionally, and nothing seemed quite so bad anymore.

You’ve probably guessed by now that we won the game. As our prize, Jesus gave us exactly what we needed—a wonderful home, just in time.