As I sit here on the deck of a cabin at the Wind River Ranch in Estes Park, Colorado, looking out at the view, I can’t help but to ponder life. The ranch is at an elevation of 9000 feet above sea level, so the air is thin, crisp and clean. So thin, even at this level that walking up a couple steps takes your breath away. There are horses and cattle down in the lower pasture. The aspen leaves are turning a beautiful gold color, interspaced in the sea of pine trees. Across the valley are a couple of mountain peaks, one at just under 12,000 feet and the other being Long’s peak towers up to 14,200 feet. Rock outcroppings jut out from the mountains at various places and you wonder what holds them in place as they seem precariously 
balanced so high up. Cell phones and tablets work intermittently at best and you have that solitude that our busy life’s so often neglect. A place where the stars come out at night and they seem amazingly close that you could almost reach out and touch them, and what seems like three times as many stars as you have ever seen before.
As I sit here immersed in the magnificent grandeur of nature I can’t help but feel small and insignificant. You look at theses things and can’t help but understand that God is an awesome God.
A few years back we were here on this very same deck during a family camp week listening to a morning devotional and that week’s speaker, Jeff Warren, had chosen the book of Job to work through. Carly and I had read or heard several sermons on that book many times. But this time was different.
We had struggled with the “why” since the accident.
Why did it happen?
Why was it as severe as it was?
Why did it change our lives so much?
Why did it have to change our ministries that we were involved in?
Why did God not love us anymore?
Why couldn’t we just be normal?
Why did I lose my identity as a man being able to work?
The list goes on and on, but there were no answers. We had spent many hours wrestling over these questions together and alone. Read books, talked to pastors and friends but nothing ever really brought us that peace we so longed for.
Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said: “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?”
Job 38:1-7 NIV
This time we got it. In the presence of the incredible mountain top experience in the full majesty of his creation, we got it. We came to terms with that back drop of a 14,000 ft mountain, we are pretty small. On the scale of Gods glory, we are incapable of even understanding all of creation. We won’t have answers to those “why” questions on this side of heaven. It’s fine to question. God is big enough to handle our questions. We just aren’t always going to get an answer or get the answer we want to hear. Everyone eventually will 
suffer or go through trials, no one is immune to life. Things are always happening to people around us. We all know those that are suffering from a death in the family, a trauma, dealing with cancer, struggling with a divorce, a loss of a job, the list goes on and on. No one person or family is being singled out. We moved from the “why” to the “why not us”?
We came to terms with the questions and knew from then on we had to seek what God wanted us to do with our situation. The better question to ask was “what’s next?” What does God want us to do next, and be open to what is presented to us.
What’s next for you?
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