The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. ⁴ So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed. (Genesis 12:1 & 4)

We just bought a house in Pennsylvania and put our house on the market in Virginia.

That simple 16-word sentence just doesn’t do justice to the stress of the past week. On the PA side, it’s involved house hunting, hours of online research, dozens of phone calls and emails back and forth with our realtor team, offering, counter-offering, praying, repositioning monies, sending off a down payment, and signing documents….

Down here in Virginia it’s involved decluttering, reorganizing, storing, painting, pressure washing, steam cleaning, staging rooms, trips to the dump, trips to Lowes, more paperwork, more phone calls, more emails, and (at least for the next several weeks) the 4 of us and our dog attempting to live in a show house. And all of this with the uncertainty that one home inspection or technicality on either end could send us right back to square one.

I’m so glad God is in control.

In the 1960s psychiatrists Thomas Holms and Richard Rahe developed a method for calibrating stress by rating a list of 43 major life events.  The premise is pretty simple, the more disruption in your life, the greater the risk of illness.  The Holmes and Rahe stress scale, as it came to be called, became the basis for all kinds of stress assessments that are still used today.

I glanced through the list and copied down our family’s stressors in the past six months or so.  Here it is:

• Death of a close family member- 63
• Sudden Job Transition- 47
• Business readjustment- 39
• Change in financial state- 38
• Change to a different line of work- 36
• Spouse starts or stops working- 26
• Beginning or end of school-26
• Change in working hours or conditions- 20
• Change in residence- 20
• Change in schools- 20
• Change in church activities- 19
• Change in social activities- 18

That 372 stress points; and according to the American Institute of Stress, anything above 300 means that there is an 80% chance of a health breakdown in the next two years.

Now, for our family, thank God, many of these stress points will be brief, or don’t affect everyone, and all of them have been met with an amazing outpouring of God’s faithfulness… but’s it’s still a pretty hefty list and we are feeling it. I shared this information with Pam and the kids, so that we can be aware and extend much needed grace to one another when we feel overwhelmed.  I want stress to press us together, not pull us apart.

I’ve also been turning my mind to Abraham.

“Hey Abraham… I know your dad just died (11:32), that you’ve already relocated once (11:31), that you and your wife are struggling with chronic infertility (11:30), and that you are surrogate father to your selfish nephew, Lot (13:7) and you’ve been worshipping a moon god up until now (Joshua 24:2)… but I’ve got a new plan for you.  I want you to leave your family, your land and your culture and move (and by this I mean, walk) 700 miles to a completely new country that I will show you. Bring all of your stuff, your servants, your herds and tents.”

“But Lord, how will I know when we’ve arrived?”

“I’ll tell you to stop.”

So Abraham left. (Genesis 12:4)

Three simple words and I bet Abraham’s stress levels were off the charts, too.

But God was up to something BIG with Abraham. The book of Hebrews explains that ^8 “It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance” Hebrews 11:8.

So, God was stretching Abraham’s faith. And through our move to Pennsylvania he is stretching our faith, too.  As we obey God’s call, he strengthens our faith and we have the opportunity to become more like Jesus- more patient, more resilient, more trusting, more surrendered and more committed to God’s kingdom purposes. And that is something I wouldn’t miss for the world.

Maybe God is using stressful circumstances to stretch you, too!