Fear & Anxiety
A big change is coming, a move and a new job, and I feel sick about it. Everything familiar is about to go. How do I face it?
“Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:”
Abram is told to leave his country, his relatives, and his father's house, which in that world meant leaving every form of security a person had. He is not given a map or a destination in advance, only a direction and a promise. Genesis does not record him feeling brave about it. What it records is that he went. The absence of detail in the call is part of the point.
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”
The writer of Hebrews looks back on Abraham and puts his finger on the hardest part: he went out not knowing where he was going. This is written to Christians who had lost property and status for their faith and were tempted to go back to what was familiar. Their examples of faith are not people who had clarity. They are people who moved while the picture was still incomplete.
A path forward
Name the specific losses, not just the general change. Write down what you are actually going to miss, then thank God for each one by name. Grief that is named is much easier to carry.
Find one thing you will keep constant across the move: a habit, a church rhythm, a weekly call with someone. Continuity in one area makes upheaval in the others survivable.
Before you arrive, find and contact one church in the new place. Landing somewhere with one connection already made changes the first month enormously.
Closing verse
“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.”
- Psalm 32:8
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