Update: The Stress of Moving

Grace and Peace readers! It has been a few weeks since you have all heard from me, so I thought I’d post a quick update to let you all in on what has been going on with me lately. As you have no doubt guessed from the title of this post, my wife and I have finally moved into our new home and to the city where I am now serving as a pastor and elder.

My intention is not to make this a long post, but as Robert Burns once wrote, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” So, we’ll see what happens.

Let me begin with this simple, and yet unsurprising statement: Moving is stressful. Anyone that has ever moved homes is fully aware of this. Now, let me continue with a statement that I never expected I would have the opportunity to experience: Buying a house is even more stressful than moving. Again, not a surprise to anyone who has ever bought before … but, when it’s your first time it is most assuredly a baptism by fire.

The last time I posted I had fully prepared to post on a weekly basis up until we signed the papers, got moved and slightly settled, and then to jump back into the posting. However, *see quote from Robert Burns above.* After my last post went “live” we began to do the back and forth dance with the underwriter assigned to our mortgage application.

I worked as a property reunderwriter for almost 7 years, so I am not out of line when I say that the job of the underwriter is to make life as difficult as possible for people. I know people who are very good at working with clients/insureds/applicants in order to help them and see them and their property be placed in good condition. Then there was our mortgage underwriter who, if I may be so bold, seemed to simply find joy in our stress and frustration. I won’t go into the details of what they were asking of us, but when we were only 4 days from closing they threw us the curve ball of the ages and it was a legitimate sprint to home plate. Add that stress to the stress of packing, moving, cleaning, and trying to disarm a previously unknown alarm system in the home we bought, and you can kinda see why my brain shut down for a month.

Readers – it has been so crazy that I am behind on school work because I can’t simply bring myself to think on that level! Thankfully, we have delayed due dates and I have more than enough time to catch up, but that’s honestly making my procrastination worse!

Thankfully, my love of studying for preaching and my love of the church has not waned. I’m grateful to be one of multiple elders at our new church simply because I had two wonderful and faithful brothers in Jesus who graciously took up the preaching duties for two weeks to give us time to move and close on our home. I can’t begin to thank them enough or to express to you all how much of a blessing it is to know that you are not ministering to your local church alone, but have brothers in Christ who are there to help carry the load. God is good.

On that note, let me share with you just one photo of the house. It’s only one photo because we have some work we want to do to the home and we currently have no livingroom furniture (gotta love those “Covid” delays, right?). So, with that said, I fully expect to pick up this discussion again after a few more weeks of coming down off of the stress of this whole situation. In fact, I’m sure there’s some good theology to discuss on moving as well as staying in place. I’ll have to think on that for a spell. In the meantime, enjoy this photo of myself and my adorable bride in front of the very first home we’ve been able to buy. We’re excited and I hope you’ll join us in that excitement! Keep an eye open for new pictures as well as pictures of what I hope will be a fruitful garden, chickens, fruit trees, and more as the years come and go.

Grace and Peace in Jesus!

– Nick