In 1982, three events took place in my life that made me question everything I thought I knew.Two young friends were killed in separate farming accidents.

Both men were young, nice guys and recently married, and both men’s wives were pregnant.The first instance occurred on the farm where my ancestors settled in southern Indiana in eighteen fifty-three when migrating from Germany. It was in the autumn and they were busy filling the silo with corn to feed the cattle during the Midwestern winter.

The silo was one of the older ones constructed out of cement and held together with iron bands around the sides. The young man was up in the top of the silo when one of the bands suddenly broke and the silo came crashing down with the man inside. A freak accident, if the band had broken just a few minutes before or a few minutes after it did, no one would have been injured.

The next incident involved another friend of mine, he was driving a self propelled combine into a corn field when a wheel fell into a rut he had not seen.The combine tipped over and he passed away when his head hit the side of the cab on the combine.

In reality, this should not have happened as the rut wasn’t that deep.About this same time, because of an incident in my life,

I began questioning the existence of God and if he did exists, why did he let these things happen to good people.I talked to clergy from which I always received the same answer, “It’s God’s Will.” To me that was a non answer.

Why would God will that one person had to endure this when the next person didn’t?I belonged to the Masonic Lodge and I began asking what the hidden meanings of masonry were. Even though the brothers were well versed in ritual, no one really

knew what the hidden mysteries were.After much research, I discovered there were no hidden mysteries, they right out there in plain sight, ready for us to understand them when we reach a level of understanding to fully comprehend them.The same with the “Will of God.” When we are ready to understand, the answer will come.

Each person will come to a different understanding, based on his knowledge and the situation in his life.But through it all, I reached a new understudying of life, God, and the challenges we all face.