We are officially back from our summer break and it is time that we get down to not just business as usual, but to the business of rebuilding the membership of this lodge.  I have tried, in my year as Master,  just about all that I could think of to get members out and attend meetings on a regular basis...  to get our members excited about what's going on in our lodge, with limited success as my reward.  

          I have come to the conclusion that the only way we are going to accomplish this is with an influx of new members that we can get exited about the fraternity, hopefully with the desire to go through the chairs and one day to sit as the Master.   To do this, I once again ask for your help.  We will be sending out petitions to all our members in hopes that you will hand them out to quality people that would benefit from Masonry and that Masonry would benefit from them.     
          We have to make a push to replace ourselves in the lodge, or the largest philanthropy in the world will die and the people that we help will be reduced to relying on the government to take care of their needs. (We all know how well that works.)

          Once again we have seen a year that we have lost more members to death than we have initiated into this wonderful world of freemasonry.  A world that puts God first as we give reverence to him as the creature to the creator.     
          As we travel through this life that God has given us, one thing becomes clearer and clearer at every funeral that I attend;  that our lives are but a vapor that twists through the wind and every time I drop another brother into the ground, it teaches me another lesson in the harsh reality that we are all right behind them.  

          As I look back on the life that I have lived I see the mistakes that I have made and the people that I have hurt, I drop to my knees and bow my head and repent...  I am sorry for the mess that I have made out of my existence.   As I look to the good things that I was able to accomplish I realize that it was all done in vain... and I repent again.  Think about it!   
          What have you done in your life that will not be seen as vanity?  You don't know if the riches that you have worked so hard for will be wasted, your good deeds will be despised by some, your advice will go unheeded by most.  For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in the days to come both will be forgotten. 
          Like the fool, the wise man too must die and stand before judgment!  You see, we are not here to serve man, but to serve God and there is only one thing that we can do in this life that is not vanity and it is not about our 50, 60 or 70 years that we spend here on earth, it is the teaching of the word about the eternity that awaits us all.  I know that this message will be rejected by some, but it is the TRUTH, which is a standing tenet of our profession and... it might be the last time that you get to hear it.