First of all, happy New Year, brethren! I hope your holidays were filled with family, friends, and happy memories. I look forward to the work we have ahead of us in Friendship Lodge this year, and welcome the opportunity to learn and grow with you all.

As I stepped into the Junior Warden’s shoes for the first time at the installation, I felt much as I did almost exactly a year before in the Senior Deacon’s role for the first time. A little overwhelmed and feeling more than a little underprepared, to say the least. In the moment, I could only think about how I didn’t know the first thing about being a Junior Warden.

But looking back at my first time fulfilling the duties of the Senior Deacon, at how unsure and overwhelmed I felt at that time, I remember the wise words: “Anything worth being good at is worth being bad at, at first.”

As we’ve all heard many times, we begin in our “rude and imperfect state.” Our aim here is to refine and perfect our shortcomings, and this requires sometimes uncomfortable and difficult work. But the end product is worth the work, the embarrassment, the uncertainty; a smooth ashlar, a better fit for that “house not made with hands.”

Be well, and keep working,

Chris Chase, Junior Warden