Mountain of Myrrh

I have been pondering over the past few days what to post on here. In some senses I feel like I have a ton to say, in others I feel I should just keep quiet. There is a lot going on around the Pleasants family. We have a guest with us from Alaska for another 2 weeks, my dad and stepmom should arrive this weekend after spending the summer in Alaska (yes it is over up there), and work for Rachel and I grows more intense by the day.

All of this together makes for long days and little to no weekend. Is that bad? Not really. We like to be busy. If we weren't working so hard, we would be missing Alaska all the more. I spoke yesterday with a great friend here and he told me about when his family first landed in KC how they mourned for their previous home and all the connections. It really hit home with me to hear him say this. I told another friend last night, that I think what is especially getting to me is almost every calendar I look at now, shows the first week or two of September, which for this Alaskan, is the start of hunting season.

Hunting season, is significant in many ways. While it is a chance for God to provide my family with an abundant supply of meat, it is also a very spiritual time. It is a time where I would sit in the woods or walk along trails and reflect over the past year and spend some great time talking to God about what was coming ahead. Last year alone I calculated that I walked over 50 miles looking for a moose to harvest. It was on the 2nd to last day of the season that God gave me the moose. Funny thing was, we barely ate any of it before we left Alaska to come here to KC. The rest of the meat went to a couple families that needed it. I couldnt be happier about that.

This past weekend in the Children's Equipping Center, the kids heard a message out of Hosea 2 and Song of Songs 4. Talking about going up the Mountain of Myrrh and how we are all on a journey. Myrrh, in this sense is actually referring to death, and the journey we are on is one of dying to ourselves and our desires and living out what God would have us do. Letting go of all the things we chase after and following God's will in our life. This is where I am at personally. Dying to all the things I know and are and have become, and living toward all that God would make of me. What a journey!