by Midnight Freemasons Founder
Todd E. Creason 33°
We all knock on the door for a different reason. We're all looking for something--that's what brings us to the door of the lodge to begin with. Some of us find ourselves there because it's a family tradition. Our fathers, and uncles, and grandfathers were all Masons. There's a lot of different reasons. We're looking for a connection in the community. We're looking for new friends. We're looking for opportunities to serve our community and we know the Masons play a big role in that.
But sometimes we miss the forest for the trees. We miss the main purpose of the fraternity, which is to give us the guidance and instruction on how to become better men. In fact, I'd say most members of our fraternity these days rarely explore and apply what masonry actually teaches us about character. About finding our purpose. We don't use those resources we have in the fraternity to truly explore those questions we all have about why we're here, and what we are meant to do with these few years we have on this earth.
I'd have to admit that's why I joined twenty years ago. I was looking for meaning in my life. I was in my mid-thirties. I had a good job, a wife that loved me, good friends, and a nice home. But I wasn't content. I didn't feel like I'd discovered what life was all about. I hadn't found that thing yet that tied it all together for me.
So I knocked on the door. And I wasn't disappointed in what I discovered. I found hundreds of years of wisdom in how to rebuild myself from the inside out. And my life changed almost immediately. I read a few hundred books, and wrote a few books. I couldn't guess how many articles I've written, and blog posts I've posted. I've shared a lot of what I've discovered over the years right on here--The Midnight Freemasons.
But my journey didn't stop there. It lead me back to faith, and another transforming experience as God called me to a very different path in life than the one I'd been on. Not everyone's path will lead them to the pulpit, but mine certainly did, and that path began at the lodge door. That's when my course in life began to change.
Masonry is about more than friendships, and service, and activities, and meetings. It's about growth. And we recite those words, and hear those concepts in our meeting and degrees, but so few of us realize that's what it's all about. It's about building character. It's about finding our way of making this world a better place. About figuring out what we were built to do, and to find ways to do it! It's about letting ourselves be remade into something the creator can use for His purpose.
So my question for you is this. Are you changed? Are you a Mason that "gets it" and applies those principles we teach to your life, or are you pretty much the same now as you were when you joined. I encourage you to dig deeper. Apply those lessons and see what happens. You were put here for a purpose. Start working on that ashlar, and see where that path that started at the lodge door may lead you.
~TEC
Todd E. Creason, 33° is the Founder of the Midnight Freemasons blog. He is the award-winning author of several books and novels, including the Famous American Freemasons series. He is a Past Master Ogden Lodge No. 754 (IL) where he currently serves as Secretary. He is a Past Sovereign Master of the Eastern Illinois Council No. 356 Allied Masonic Degrees. He is a Fellow at the Missouri Lodge of Research. (FMLR). He is a charter member of Admiration Chapter No. 282 and a Past EHP.