Worshipful Master's Message

Brethren,

FAITH

As you will no doubt recall, the three principle rounds of Jacob’s ladder are denominated Faith, Hope and Charity. I want to reflect upon Faith for a few moments. In ritual we are admonished to have Faith in God. Easy to say, difficult to achieve. In my life, here are some examples of how FAITH and I shook hands.

I retired just a couple of years ago. It is a scary decision trying to decide if you will be financially okay when you retire. I sat down and had a long talk with myself, and decided that I had the faith that everything will be all right. .

For a long time in my life, I was an eagles fan, but that was back when we had Steve Van Buren, Norm Van Brocklyn and other players of a great era, but they just could not seem to win the big one. I became discouraged and by 1969 decided to switch my team to one I could have faith in. Because my major was Computer science and the Dallas Cowboys were the first team to predict draft needs using computer simulation, I picked them. But a still further reason was their head coach, Tom Landry. Coach Landry was a man of faith. He said, “I’d hate to say my faith’s a rock, but it’s true. It is my strength; it gives me inner peace. Without my faith, I’d be in real bad shape. Faith gives a man hope and hope is what life is all about.”

Faith is an integral part of a mason’s life. We are all reminded of faith when we look at Jacob’s ladder, the first principle round of which is Faith. Faith is synonymous with confidence and trust. We need faith to have hope and charity, and although faith will be lost in sight, without it, we are empty. Faith is the basis for achieving our desires. Floyd Patterson said, “A dream is a seed which with hard work and discipline will grow; faith in God, which in turn will give you faith in yourself, will bear fruit.”

Norman Vincent Peale tells us, "The greatest secret for eliminating the inferiority complex, which is another term for deep and profound self-doubt, is to fill your mind to overflowing with faith. Develop a tremendous faith in God and that will give you a humble, yet soundly realistic faith in yourself."

Fraternally yours,

Herb Atkinson
Worshipful Master