Monday, May 4, 2009

Stress of Moving





Things have really gotten crazy this week. One week from today, Joan and I get on a plane to fly to Australia for three weeks. Seven days! And we have to be pretty much packed by the time we depart. Joan and I are just looking at each other with deer-in-the-headlights sort of looks. I've been busy packing all my books and stuff in my office today, and that was ok, but then when I started taking down my stuff from the walls (diplomas, awards, wall hangings, etc.), the grief and sadness of moving sort of grabbed me. I thought, "I don't want to be taking this stuff down."

It still seems hard to believe that I'm finished with my pastorate at this church. I'm still going to preach a couple more times, but I'm pretty much done. I'll preach this Sunday, we'll get on the plane to go on vacation, and then return, go to the conference session (this annual Methodist meeting we always go to at this time of year) and then I have my last Sunday, goodbye dinner, and then we move.

Although in many ways, I am looking forward to beginning a new life and ministry in Fredericksburg, I am very sad to be leaving Victoria. This has been a wonderful place. There are so many plans I hoped to see come to fruition in the coming months and years. There are so many people I am going to miss. It's interesting that each move I have experienced as an itinerant United Methodist pastor has been different. Sometimes you anticipate or seek a move and are excited about where you're going, others you don't expect or seek, but readily accept because of the exciting possibilities it presents, and still others you struggle with, both in terms of not wanting to leave or not wanting to go to the new place or both. This one I have all kinds of ambivalent feelings about. I saw myself serving here a good while longer, I wasn't ready for a change, and I grieve leaving these people. Yet, I feel that God is calling me in this move. And when God sends you on a journey, that is the road you want to be on, as painful as it might be to depart, because great unknown blessings await down that road.

Now enough of this, and back to packing and stressing!

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