Our Fixed Point of Reference

Let’s imagine I am in a humongous, dark room. It’s a featureless room. It doesn’t even have corners in it. It has round walls. The whole point of that is, I don't even know where I am.

I’m feeling my way around in this room. I’m groping around in the darkness, trying to find where I am. Suddenly, I feel something in front of me. It’s a chair! Yes! Ah! Yes! It has … it has legs and it has braces and it has a back. It’s a chair! Ah! Good! Now I can sit here. At least I know where I am. I’m in the chair. Ah, it’s a good feeling! It’s a home base. I can navigate from this chair. All I have to do I carry this chair with me and I'll always know where I am.

If you found yourself laughing it may be you realize how ridiculous this illustration is because you know that no fixed point of reference is going to do you any good unless it has two factors: 1) it has to be separate from youself, and 2) it cannot move.

As soon as I pick it up and make it a part of my me, make it a part of my consciousness, make it a part of my mobility, it isn't a fixed point of reference anymore! I’ll never know where I am, because the thing moves. As long as it stays right there and doesn't move, now that’s security!

That’s one of the prime factors of navigation, you know. When you’re out on a sailboat, you’re out on the vast, featureless expanse of ocean and you have no idea where you are, unless you have a tool of measurement, in this case, a sexton. A sexton is used to measure from the stars to tell one's location. The reason you can measure from the stars to figure out where you are is, because the stars don’t move. They’re fixed in space. Now, the earth moves and it makes it look like the stars move, but we know all that stuff. The stars themselves don’t move. But, if the stars were just floating around wherever they wanted, you wouldn’t know where you are. That’s a fixed point of reference.

All of us has had points in our life where it seemed like we were at our lowest point. We were miserable, weak and discouraged. What did you have to hold onto?

When a new initiate is brought into the lodge he is told to 'kneel for the benefit of prayer'. Before rising, he is asked,  'In whom do you place your trust?' In truth, the initiate should be able to answer, 'In God.' Then what? 'It is well. Your faith being well founded, arise, follow your guide and fear no danger.'

Without a fixed point of reference in our lives, we will be like the explorer lost in the depths of the cavern without a light; like the sailor out at sea with no understanding of his navigational instruments or how to read the stars.

As we progress through Blue Lodge we learn of the working tools of a Mason. Yet, of most importance, are the three Great Lights upon the altar in every lodge room--the Holy Bible, Square and Compasses.

The Holy Bible - to serve as our volume of Sacred Law and moral guide. The Square - to square our actions by the square of virtue. The Compasses - to circumscribe our desires and keep them within due bounds. As a Freemason, these provide a fixed point of reference for us. They should be our rule and guide for our conduct through life.

Without a fixed point of reference, not only can we not help ourselves, but we will be of no value to those around us or to our Craft.

Sources:

Illustration of the Chair as A Fixed Point of Reference taken from author Frank Peretti.