A Mason's Work

Compassion is your friend, compassion is your guide, it is built into the Masonic education.

There's a time and place for compassion and I don't want to dismiss its value in terms

of making sure that you're going to be okay through whatever process that is you're going

through.

At the same time, the brethren that I have met in my Masonic travels and out on the net

and things like that, there is a fair amount of folks that complain and they complain a

lot and they complain that this isn't the Freemasonry that they joined or that the experiences

that they're having aren't the ones they were hoping for.

Or man, wouldn't it be great if my lodge did this or that, the other thing.

And in every complaint is the seed of self development.

In every bit of upset is the foundation for your positive growth.

So here is a great Masonic exercise for solving real problems in lodges and it starts with

you because it always starts with you.

You are the most important Freemason in the world and that's a fact, right?

Because it is unlikely given the way the internet works that I'm going to meet you and I'm

going to be the most important Freemason in my Masonic experience and you're going to

be the most important Freemason in your Masonic experience and that is as it should be.

So when you are busy working and trying to figure out what problems are solving or what

places you want to grow or develop, start with the complaints.

So if it's not your complaints, if it's somebody else's complaints, would you agree with them?

That's just as good.

I see guys saying, well, we only bring in new people that want to do watch the game

on the weekends and sit around and drink beer.

Okay, you don't like that.

You want somebody that's going to help you grow and develop cool.

Now what?

What are you going to do?

What are you going to do to fix it?

What are you going to do to make it happen?

What are you going to do to change it?

Have you tried anything?

Have you tried anything that didn't require the entire universe to bend to your will?

Could you maybe step change into it?

And if it didn't work before, could you learn from growth and that experience?

Now I know a lot of this sounds harsh, but one of the things that you have to embrace

as you become the best possible version of yourself is that you have all of the control

you're ever going to get.

No one's coming to save you.

No one's going to come fix it.

You can enroll others to help you, but you have to be the boss.

It is the nature of being your own worshipful master.

So when you pursue these complaints, you get to use all the tools of the craft to grow.

You get to use every single one of them.

You get to break out your perfect ashlar.

You get to break out your rough ashlar.

You get to break out your current thing, your composite, your ionic, your Doric, the whole

shoot game match.

You get to break those out even the Tuscan.

You'll get to use every single one of these tools to make these things change.

That's our mission.

We are the change agents, the moral change agents of the world.

We talked about this a little bit in the last episode about the path that you get to take,

whatever one you want relative to the faith or the tradition that you like.

If you're on the bodhisattva path, by all means, do it.

You don't sit around in a hotel room and claim you're on the path.

You do the work.

So this is your call out.

This is everyone's call out.

It's mine as well.

If you don't like it, change it.

If you're having a hard time doing that, break out more tools, get more help.

This is your fraternity too.

You're the most important person in it.

So, stop what you're doing.

List out your complaints.

Start riding it.

You have work to do.

If you're struggling and that's okay, we're here to help each other out.

Reach out.

Let me know.

I'm here to help you because we're all in this together.