Instruction Manuals Are we referring often enough to the Instruction Manuals in Life and in Freemasonry? We can only go forward if we use them properly. By RW Bro Cor van Zyl
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verybody loves LEGO blocks. We are men and, as in Life, we don’t buy the small kits, we want the big ones. So, we go and buy the biggest LEGO truck we can find. We tear open the box and many bags of blocks fall out of the box. We then tear open the bags and end up with a huge heap of building blocks and we toss the box with the paperwork aside. To man, creating and building is part of our nature and DNA, or so we think, so we start building. Every now and then we take a quick glimpse at the picture on the box and then continue building. Almost as everything starts to shape up nicely, we get stuck. We look at the box, then look at the project, look at the box and the project side by side... Hmmm... Domething is wrong. Only then do we decide to open the “Instruction Manual”, paging past the Safety Hazard pages, going back and forth until we get to the problem area. Often, we have to break down a part before we can start building correctly towards this master’s piece. No pain, no gain. This is so similar in Life and Masonry. We start our Life and Careers so quickly and the, all too often, we get stuck. In Life the Instruction Manual is the VSL. When we return to the VSL we find answers and, unfortunately, sometimes we have to break down a part before we can start building correctly towards the masterpiece again. The same principle applies to Freemasonry. The Instruction Manuals are the Rituals and Constitution. We cannot just periodically glimpse at the picture. If we are to progress we have to follow the Instructions until they become a habit.
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