A Way of Life
The other
organizations you pay your money and you become a member of the Moose, Elks,
Lions, PTA, and The Joe Mauer Fan club. You get a dues card in the mail. Maybe
you go to a meeting or a sponsored event maybe you don’t….but you’re a dues
paying member.
Freemasonry
is very different. Right up front we as an organization proclaim;
“Making Good
Men Better”
In Freemasonry
our Ritualistic teaching provides the tools, the teachings, the support, the
incentives to make Masonry “A way of Life” Pure and Simple.
It is the
roll of the Lodge and its members to make full fledged active Masons, not just a
member.
Other
organizations are not interested in you or your conduct when you’re not
attending one of their meetings. But as a Mason you are a Mason 24/7, 365 days
a year, always! Everything you say, everything you do, every life you touch
reveals how successfully you have made Masonry a Way of Life.
As a Candidate
you immerse yourself into the Masonic Society and Culture. You learn and are
Mentored the teachings and the Masonic Ways. You grow into your new role, your
new role grows in you. These new teachings and customs become you. You practice
it and the more you practice it the better you get at it. Your goal is Progress
not Perfection. For Freemasonry is a journey, not a destination. Now Think
about it. Your life is a journey because your ultimate destination in life is
the grave.
In
Freemasonry we take an obligation that is our life guiding principils knelling
at an Alter in front of witnesses’ .These are real promises to do things and
not to do to others. THEY ARE NOT
SYMBOLIC!
We promise we
WILL always help, aid, and assist. Not
if we feel like it or sometimes….maybe but always.
We promise
we will NOT cheat, wrong or defraud. Not
a Mason, not a lodge brother, not a friend, not a relative not a stranger…..no
one!
Now I don’t
think my daughter did this when she joined Green Peace, and I know my Uncle
didn’t even do this when he joined the NRA.
Freemasonry
is a place where good men accept our tools, ways, and customs and joins our
Society. The new Brother is active in the lodge’s activities. We find the new
Brother taking Ritual and Leadership positions in the lodge. That is how we can
tell when the Lodge is effectively working.
I think it
is the Lodges ultimate goal is the day they raise a new brother and keep him
active and improving so he can receive his 50 year pin. The lodge is a place
where we live and grow old together.
Freemasonry
is a not for everyone it’s a way of life.
I wrote this several years ago and used it in Speeches, and thought its time for others to read this....
