Latest / The Masonic Journey / New Beginnings
Transcript
- Josh Kelley: Hey everybody, Josh Kelly here with another episode of Walking Talks on the Masonic Journey. Today I'm coming to you from St. Peter's, Missouri, standing in front of Bridgeton Masonic Lodge number 80. I'm up here this week because I started a new job, a new company, a new opportunity, and a new chapter in my life. It got me thinking about something that we all experience at one time or another. New beginnings. You know, starting over is an interesting thing. Sometimes we choose it, sometimes circumstances make that choice for us. sometimes we spend so much time trying to hold on to what we've built and don't recognize when it's time to start building something new. And I've been thinking about that for quite a while. When you start a new job, there's a certain amount of excitement. There's the opportunity to meet new people, to learn new things, and to see where this next chapter might lead. There's also uncertainty. You don't know exactly how things are gonna turn out. You don't know what challenges you're gonna face or whether everything is gonna work out the way you hope it will. But you know that's life really, isn't it? We spend so much time. Looking for certainty that we become afraid to take the next step. And here's something I've been reminding myself of lately. You don't have to know how the entire journey is going to unfold to take the next step. You just have to be willing to take it. Standing here in front of a Masonic lodge, I'm reminded of something we learned very early in our Masonic journey. When a man first approaches the doors of a lodge, he doesn't know everything that's waiting for him on the other side. He's entering unfamiliar territory. He's placing himself in a position where he's gonna have to learn to grow, listen, trust. In many ways, he's beginning again. And here's what I find interesting about that. We often talk about becoming a Mason as though it's something that's happened to us years ago. We entered a lodge, we received our degrees, we began that journey. But what if that process of beginning again is something we're supposed to carry with us throughout our entire lives? What if we're never really finished being that candidate standing at the door? Think about it. Every time we encounter something we don't understand, we recognize something within ourselves that needs to change. Every time life presents us an opportunity to grow, we're standing at another door. And we have a choice. We can remain where we are, comfortable with what we already know. Or we can knock. You know, one of the things I've learned over the years is that experience can be both a blessing and a burden. I've been in sales for a long time. I've been successful at it. I've trained people, led teams, and learned a lot along the way. But starting this new job, I've had to remind myself that I don't know everything. There are systems to learn, new people to listen to, different approaches that I may not have considered before. And that's a good thing. Because the moment we convince ourselves that we have nothing left to learn is the moment we stop growing. That's true in our careers, it's true in our relationships, and it's certainly true in Freemasonry. You can be a Mason for 30 years and still have something to learn from a brother who received his entered apprentice degree last week. You just have to be willing to listen. There's another part of new beginnings that I think we sometimes overlook. We don't start over as the same person we were the last time. Every experience we've had, every success, every failure, every disappointment, and every lesson learned along the way has helped to shape who we are today. When I walked into this new job, I didn't leave all my previous experiences behind. I brought them with me. The good experiences and the difficult ones. And I hope I'm a little wiser because of them. You know, that's one of the beautiful things about the work we do as masons. We aren't handed a perfect stone and told to admire it. We're given a rough ashlar. Something that requires work. And that work doesn't simply stop because we've reached a certain age, earned a title, or maybe achieved a particular degree. There are still rough ashlars and rough edges to remove. There are still parts of ourselves that need attention. And sometimes a new beginning gives us an opportunity to see those things a little bit more clearly. Maybe we recognize an old habit that we don't want to carry into the next chapter. Maybe we discover that something we once believed about ourselves is no longer true. Maybe we realize that we're capable of more than we previously imagined. That's the opportunity a new beginning gives us. I think about the brothers who came to our lodges for the first time. Some of them are Young men just beginning their adult lives. Others are older men who've already raised families, built careers, and experienced more than their fair share of life's challenges. Yet they all come through those same doors as a candidate. They all begin with something to learn. And I I think there's a lesson there for every single one of us. No matter how far we've traveled, there's always another opportunity to grow. No matter how many mistakes we've made, we can choose to do something differently today. No matter how comfortable we've become, there's always another door waiting for us to knock. So as I begin this new chapter in my life, that's what I'm choosing to focus on. I'm grateful for the experiences that brought me here. I'm grateful for the people who've helped along the way. And I'm looking forward to discovering what this next chapter has to teach me. And I don't know exactly where this road's gonna lead, but I know that I'm gonna keep walking. And maybe that's the thought I'd like to leave with you today. Whatever chapter in life you find yourself in right now, don't convince yourself. That the story's already been written. There's still more to learn. There's still more to build. There's still more to become. And sometimes the most important thing we can do is simply to find the courage to begin again. I'm Josh Kelly, coming to you from Bridgeton Masonic Lodge number eighty in St. Peter's, Missouri. Thanks for Joining me for another walking talks on the Masonic Journey podcast. Until next time, my brothers, live the craft. Give the craft.