DO THE BEST YOU CAN
WITH WHAT YOU’VE GOT
AND DO IT NOW!!
A Message from the Grand Junior Warden.
My Brothers,
First, Thank You for the Honor of serving you and our brothers as Grand Junior Warden this year. As our Grand Master says: The Grand Lodge belongs to all the members. The Grand Lodge line officers work for YOU. Call on them to help, aid, and assist anytime you or your lodge needs help.
Right Worshipful Dunkin said in his June article, “We as Masons are facing challenging times”. Coming off two years of inaction due to Covid and the related restrictions is certainly a challenge for all our members and lodges. Our current economic situation brought on by government policies puts all our financial institutions at risk.
However, as we all have experienced before, without adversity there is no opportunity to excel. Now is the time to prepare ourselves as Masons to excel and drive our fraternity to new heights of fame and glory.
I spent my working life in the Agricultural Chemical and Fertilizer industries. In those days, each state had a Fertilizer and Chemical Association that held annual conventions. Typically, a banquet would be held with a keynote speaker to “pump up” the crowd.
I had the distinct pleasure of attending three such conventions at which Mr. Jerry Clower, of Rt. 1, Liberty, Ms. was the keynote speaker. For those that are too young to remember Mr. Clower, he was a fertilizer salesman for Mississippi Chemical Company and ultimately a Vice President of that company. Mr. Clower was a Master Storyteller who entertained farm audiences with funny personal stories of growing up in Mississippi. He parlayed his storytelling into a very successful career as an entertainer on TV, and live performances. More often than not, these stories would have a moral lesson to teach. Not all that unlike the parables Jesus used to teach his pupils. Typically, after the show was over Mr. Clower would go to the closest coffee shop and sit and talk to whoever was there. I had the good fortune to sit and visit with Mr. Clower on two of these occasions. I am pretty sure that Mr. Clower was not a Brother Mason but he was in his heart.
One of Mr. Clower’s stories at the time stuck with me and has stood in good stead for the past 40 years. The subject of this story was a college football player that was trying to make the team (and earn a scholarship) but was hindered by doubts, fears and failures. On the verge of quitting because he wasn’t good enough, wasn’t talented enough, wasn’t tough enough, the Coach took him aside and gave the young football player some valuable advice.
The Coach explained to the young man to quit worrying about all his doubts and fears and “Do the Best You Can, With What You Got, and Do It NOW!”
This simple philosophy is a gold nugget for the rest of us. Whether we’re talking about us as individuals, our Lodges, or our Grand Lodge, this simple thought can help all of us to excel and bring our organization moving forward.
Each of our Lodges are individuals with no two alike. We have members with many different and varied talents. We are all short of money to do the charitable works we would like. We all are confounded by the world we now live in where morality seems to be the object of derision by the media and government. But if we decide what we want to accomplish with the talent and time we have available and act now our chance of success increase greatly.
Most Worshipful Grand Master Jay McCallum has given all of us a challenge to raise money to support our charities, The Masonic Children’s Charities, by raising money from outside of our organization. The Masonic Children’s Charities fund our Dyslexia Program across the State of Louisiana and fund numerous college scholarships for deserving students. These two programs touch many, many lives and will continue to help those kids and their families for years to come. I can’t think of a better way to use our time and talents than to make sure these two programs continue to help the Children of our State.
We have been given a direction to follow, now make a plan to contact the people able to help our Masonic Children’s Charities and GO MAKE THOSE CONTACTS.
As Right Worshipful Brother Dunkin says “We’ve got to get out of Our Lodge Buildings and show the public what Masons Stand For”.
It is up to each of us, you and me, to decide how to best implement a plan to secure that funding.
Then Get out of the Lodge Building and DO THE BEST YOU CAN FOR OUR MASONIC CHILDREN’S CHARITIES, WITH WHAT TALENT AND IDEAS YOU’VE GOT, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY: DON’T WAIT UNTIL EVERYTHING IS PERFECT:
“Do the Best You Can, With What You’ve Got & Do It Now”
Again, Thank You my Brothers for allowing me to serve you. Please call on me at any time.
R∴W∴ John F. Knox, Jr.
Grand Junior Warden
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