Rightly Ordered Affections

In recent weeks, I've tried to keep a phrase in my mind: "rightly ordered affections." It has been to my benefit to do so; today I share what it means and why it has helped me.

In the early fifth century, St. Augustine of Hippo wrote The City of God. In it he discusses (among many other things) the order of love:

It seems to me that it is a brief but true definition of virtue to say, it is the order of love

This idea has been called ordo amoris, or rightly ordered affections. Love in its proper hierarchy or sequence. And he argues (rightly) that getting our loves disordered is sinful. Why?

The Bible lays it out in Matthew 22:35-40:.

35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Here Jesus presents the two great commandments. Summarizing, 1) Love the Lord with all you have, and  2) Love your neighbor as yourself. 

Loving God comes first, before all else. Jesus demonstrated this throughout His life; the man with power to heal the world focused first on loving the Father. He routinely withdrew alone to pray (Mark 1:35 and elsewhere), He was tempted by the devil but focused on and worshipped the Lord (Matthew 4:1-10), and He had his own desires—and made them plain to the Father!—but always bowed to the Father's will (Matthew 26:36-46). 

Loving your neighbor as yourself comes second. 

Both loving God and neighbor doesn't come easily or naturally to us. In the Fall, we put ourselves above God and worshipped the creation over the Creator (Romans 1:18-32). That can include loving people or other good things over God; to Augustine's point, it is loving out of order. Tim Keller makes the same point said another way: 

Idolatry happens when we take good things and make them ultimate things

Sometimes we think our desires are wrong (and to be clear, some desires are wrong). But some desires are good—if in their proper place. And it is helpful to remember both that 1) they are good but 2) ONLY if they are subordinate to God.

Our desires can be good, and God wants to hear about them because He cares for us. He wants us to pray for things (Philippians 4:6-7). When we cast our needs and cares on Him, we are showing him that we believe He cares and can do something about it. He might give us what we wish; he might not (there are plenty of examples of both in the Bible). Either way, we come to Him with our requests, confident in His goodness but subordinate to His will, knowing if He withholds something we request—even something good!—it is for a good reason (whether or not that is ever clear to us in this world).

Here's an example. One of my 'ruling passions'* is peace. Peace is good! The Bible says that blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9). But is also says that Jesus has come not to bring peace but a sword (Matthew 10:34-39). That's no contradiction; it is the reality of truth (the Son of God) coming into a world of darkness. There will be clashes. And in that same passage, Jesus says "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. " Here we see this concept of ordering: "more than me" is, in this passage, putting love of family ahead of love of God. It is doing anything to keep the peace when a conflict is (regrettably) needed. So while we strive for peace, we strive more for God. We seek and pray for peace, but must be willing to enter into conflict when necessary. Whenever I avoid needed conflict, I am putting my love for peace (a good thing!) above God. And that is wrong.

So, "rightly ordered affections." It is a phrase I've tried to keep in my mind at work, home, church, or wherever I need it. When I see conflict coming and I want to run? "Rightly ordered affections." When I'm tired and need sleep (another good thing) but my wife needs help? "Rightly ordered affections." Or when I want to finish this post but my son comes in saying he lost his earbud in the lawn and needs help finding it?** Ugh . . . "rightly ordered affections." 

For me, repeating this phrase has been helpful; it has reminded me to seek God first while validating the other desires I have are okay—in their proper order. 

*a term I read recently from a great book on spiritual health—review coming soon

**yes, this literally just happened

Hercules and the 12 Labors

Today's review is of the 2025 release, Hercules and the 12 Labors. For one player, it takes 30-60 minutes.

Overview

You are the legendary Hercules of Greek mythology, charged to overcome the twelve labors, gain enough glory to ascend to dwell with the gods, and not die (don't let your spirit drop to zero). Do you have what it takes?

In this solo dice manipulation game, each labor is encountered sequentially. For a given labor,

• read (if you wish) and set aside the story cards
• lay out the labor card(s), including the starting strength of the labor (a die value from 3-12) and the die value(s) you need to obtain to deal damage to it. Place the yellow labor die in the slot(s) with the starting value(s) face-up.
• labor cards have 'tracks' that the die follow, each of which has some benefit (to the labor, like healing damage) or drawback (to you, like losing spirit or losing die)
• set the mood (draw a mood card at random to be in effect for that labor; moods can help or hurt you)

Once done with setup, the labor begins. For a given labor:

• roll your blue dice (you start with 5 in 'human' mode and can gain more as the game progresses)
• manipulate your dice using abilities in blue boxes
• you start with one option and can gain more as you defeat labors
• options include (but are not limited to) setting a die to a given value, rerolling a die, adjusting a die value up or down by one, and more
• assign your dice to abilities in gold boxes or to deal damage to the monster
• decrement the labor die according to damage dealt
• if the labor die is greater than zero, advance it to the next slot on the track and activate its ability
• if the labor die is zero, it is defeated. If all labor die on a labor are gone, you defeat that labor and advance!
• when you defeat a labor, flip the card(s) to choose one reward printed on the back. This could gain spirit, add die to your pool, grant a new blue or gold box ability, and more.
• set up the next labor and go back to the start of the process above

Play continues until you 1) have zero spirit or 2) have been defeated by a labor. If you have beaten all twelve labors *and* have sufficient glory, you win! Otherwise . . . oh well.

Below are three pictures from my own experience, playing against labors IV, VIII, and XII, respectively. Note that as the game progresses, you gain different dice manipulation abilities; these are key to have any chance.

Review

My second "solo-only" game, there is a lot to like about Hercules and the 12 Labors. 

- The art is evocative, the different labors are interesting, and it does a good job of giving you increased abilities to match harder challenges. 

- The mood cards are a real wild card, giving key abilities or making your life harder for a given turn. 

- The decisions are largely meaningful, especially as you gain dice manipulation abilities. 

- The difficulty level seems pretty easy on 'human' mode (as it should); I suspect 'hero' mode (starting with one fewer die) would be much more challenging. 

It wasn't all gold.

- The rulebook could have been better. The graphics pages (explaining the dice manipulation abilities) were good, but otherwise, the rulebook left a lot of gaps or explained things in confusing ways; I had to consult AI several times. 

- At the end of the day, this is a dice chucker. You could be completely decimated through no fault of your own. Or sail through without any real decision-making.

Overall, I liked it, but prefer Adamastor for solo gaming.

Rating: B

Art and the Bible (Francis A. Schaeffer)

Art and the Bible is a 1973 short work (94 pages) by the renowned Francis Schaeffer that consists of two essays. In the first, he looks at the place of art in the Christian's life. In the second, he develops a Christian perspective on art, consisting of eleven principles. A summary follows.

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Essay One: Art and the Bible

Jesus is Lord of all, and everything is under His lordship—including culture and art. Christians sometimes struggle with art given the Bible's prohibition against making graven images (Exodus 20:4-5). But this is not a blanket statement against art in general but rather condemns the worship of it. After all, God commissioned art for the tabernacle and temple, respectively, and different art forms are found all throughout the Bible. Part of being made in God's image includes creativity—and art. Examples:

Representational Art 

- Sculptures in the tabernacle and temple, respectively (Exodus 25:18, 31-33; 2 Chronicles 3:10, 4:3-4)

- A bronze serpent (Numbers 21:8), that Jesus used as an example (John 3:14-15)

- Clothing (Exodus 28:33)

- Other things in the temple, including bas relief (1 Chronicles 28:11-12, 19; 2 Chronicles 3:6-7)

- Solomon's throne (1 Kings 10:18-20)

- Note that "representational art of non-religious subjects" was found in "the central place of worship."

Poetry

Poetry is scattered throughout the Bible. Poems are in many books or entire books.

- 2 Samuel 1:19-27 (a secular ode!)

- 2 Samuel 23:1-2

- The Psalms and Song of Solomon

Music

- Celebrating the escape from Egypt (Exodus 15)

- In the temple (1 Chronicles 23:5)

Drama

- Ezekiel's prophecy, which he was to enact twice a year (Ezekiel 4:1-3)

Dance

- Psalm 149:3, Psalm 150:4-5

- Miriam dancing after the escape from Egypt (Exodus 15:20)

- David dancing (2 Samuel 6:14-16)

Art is not just pragmatic and truthful but also beautiful (for its own sake). See places like 2 Chronicles 3:6, 16-17, and elsewhere. It can represent both the seen and unseen world (see 1 Kings 6:29). It is for both religious and secular reasons.

Essay Two: Some Perspectives on Art

"How should we as creators and enjoyers of beauty comprehend and evaluate it?" He provides eleven principles.

1. "A work of art has a value in itself." It is to be enjoyed as well as evaluated.
2. "Art forms add strength to the world view which shows through, no matter what the world view is or whether the world view is true or false."
3. "In all forms of writing, both poetry and prose, it makes a tremendous difference whether there is a continuity or discontinuity with the normal definitions of words in normal syntax."
• "Totally abstract art stands in an undefined relationship with the viewer."
4. "The fact that something is a work of art does not make it sacred."
5.  There are four basic standards by which to judge art: technical excellence, validity, intellectual content, and the integration of content and vehicle. 
6. "Art can be used for any type of message from pure fantasy to detailed history."
7. "Styles of art form change and there is nothing wrong with this."
8. "There is no such thing as a godly style or an ungodly style."
9. "The Christian world view is divided into . . . a major and a minor theme."
• The major is the Gospel. The minor is the fall.
10. "Christian art is by no means always religious art, that is, art which deals with religious themes."
11. "Every artist has the problem of making an individual work of art and, as well, buidling up a total body of work."

Ultimately, "no work of art is more important than the Christian's own life . . . each  man has the gift of creativity in terms of the way he lifes his life. In this sense, the Christian's life is to be an art work. The Christian's life is to be a thing of truth and also a thing of beauty in the midst of a lost and despairing world."

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This was a great book; short and to the point. Schaeffer brought up a lot of good Scriptures and insights on this topic. Written at a time when some Christians had a dim view of art (or non-religious art) in general, this was a needed corrective then (and is likely still needed now).

Rating: A

Captain America: Brave New World

The MCU saga continues . . .

Sam is the new Captain America*. Thaddeus Ross** is president and wants to re-form the Avengers. And Celestial Island*** is the latest topic of concern; made of Adamantium, the world debates if it is better to share or fight over the wealth. Wanting the former, Ross attempts diplomacy at the Celestial Island World Summit. But Ross has a dark secret that may destroy the best-laid plans . . . and he may be his own worst enemy.

Captain America: Brave New World reminds us of the two most forgettable movies in the MCU (see below links) and then contributes to that by being itself largely irrelevant. There were good themes (of the need to reform, take responsibility for your own actions, never give up, and give each other grace), but these were minimally developed (and confusingly so). The confusion revolves around several bad guys, each with a blend of motives that leaves the audience wondering who we are supposed to root for (or against). The action was 'meh' and I was unclear if or how this drove the overall MCU storyline forward. As is increasingly common, you need to be familiar with several (many?) prior MCU releases in film and television. Ultimately, this felt more like a long television show. This came out 1.5 years ago . . . I don't normally wait so long to watch MCU movies, but I didn't miss anything by doing so here.

Rating: C

*See the TV series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

**See The Incredible Hulk. Then a General (and played by another actor), Ross has risen to POTUS.

***See The Eternals.

Spider-man: Brand New Day

Continuing from last time . . . [no spoilers below save what was evident in trailers or in No Way Home]

Peter Parker lives in loneliness as he reels from the events of No Way Home. Aunt May is dead. The world doesn't know him; even his besties MJ and Ned have no memory of him. And things are about to get worse . . .  for powerful new threats appear on the horizon even as Peter wrestles with changes in himself. Can people with powers live a normal life, with friends and family to enjoy and help? Or does the great responsibility that comes with great power mean he is destined to do this alone?

It has been a long time (4.5 years) since the last Spidey movie, and it was nice to see the MCU progress this storyline. A few observations:

- This film strikes a markedly different tone from the others; it was 'heavier' and more poignant as various characters grapple with loneliness and pain. It felt less like a typical action-oriented Marvel film and more psychological.

- The characters were done well. It was fun seeing Punisher's incorporation into the movies (after several television series), though they made no attempt to explain why he was suddenly on the scene. Hulk was cool, too. Others were also great, but I won't share details to avoid spoilers.

- The story was alright. Some of the plot twists were obvious; others were unexpected. They do keep you guessing. It does not stand alone; you need to be familiar with prior films, though I guess that is expected at this point.

- The message was simple: we need others ("friendship is magical," I joked with my boys—My Little Pony's tagline is apt here). 

Is this the best Spider-man movie ever? Some so claim . . . I'm not convinced. It is a good film, but I'm not sure it is the best one.

Rating: A

Hillbilly Elegy (J.D. Vance)

J.D. Vance is a hillbilly. He grew up in Middletown, Ohio, and spent plenty of time in Jackson, Kentucky. From a blue-collar and broken home (poor, an addict mother rotating through husbands, an extended family with their own anger, money, or drug problems), he would beat the odds to graduate high school, serve as a Marine, go to college, go to Yale law school, and have a stable and happy home life. But even if you leave the 'holler' . . . does it ever really leave you? Hillbilly Elegy is his story, but not just his—it is "a memoir of a family and culture in crisis." 

Vance's stated goals here are to help people understand the white poor, the demons they face (and that follow them), what the American Dream looks like for people like him, and how upward mobility feels for a "cultural emigrant." Written when he was just thirty-one, within a decade this man would go on to be Senator (and now) Vice President. Incredible.

This is a sobering, haunting, and yet hopeful/inspiring read. It is mostly a memoir—a select autobiography—with some statistics and insights thrown in on the white poor as a whole. Ultimately, Vance shows that everyone needs help (it's about who you know, who knows you, and how they help you) and grace (we all have our demons and need others to heal). He also has keen insights on the realities of personal responsibility being in tension with the environment you are raised in and its impact on you. Regardless of how you feel about the man's politics, I recommend this book to help understand not just him, but the challenges that face a large percentage of America today.

Rating: A

Adamastor

Today's review is of the 2025 release, Adamastor. For one player, it takes 30 minutes.

Overview

You are a captain charged with getting your ship across the seas. But it won't be easy . . . illness, fatigue, weather, and even mutiny may stand in your way. Do you have what it takes to navigate these perils (and any adventures that may await) and lead your ship to safe shores?

Adamastor is a solo game—it is a race against time and perils. After setting up the play area (laying out four map cards, setting your ship on the leftmost, laying out three sailing cards to form the adventure row, setting up the sailing and encounter decks, and drawing 3 more sailing cards as your hand) and determining the weather (see below), play begins.

Key to this game are the sailing cards (two examples above), which have several attributes. They have a card number (top right), weather icon (top left), threat and motivation icons (middle left), navigation points (bottom center), and a trauma or skill (center right). 

- the card number determines order in the adventure row (cards go highest to lowest number)

- the weather icons of the three cards in the adventure row determine the weather for the turn (which determines your action points and navigation difficulty for the turn)

- threat and motivation icons are used during the event phase to determine if any bad things happen or you have enough motivation to gain a skill, respectively 

- navigation points are used to propel your ship. Moving into different spots on the map have different costs, and you must discard from your hand to gain the corresponding number of points

- traumas or skills are gained during the event phase, giving you permanent bonuses or penalties

The game is played over a series of turns. Simplified, these are:

- sunrise (draw a card and add it to the adventure row, then determine the weather and gather the corresponding number of action tokens)

- actions (draw a card, swap a card between your hand and adventure row, or navigate your ship by discarding the needed number of navigation points). Each of these actions costs one token, and you can do as many as you can pay for (including the same action more than once)

-- in the action phase, if you stop on an adventure icon, you trigger an encounter by drawing the bottom card of the encounter deck and doing what it says

- events (check the card symbols in the adventure row, gaining a skill if possible, then studying the perils to see if you have triggered unrest, disease, exhaustion, or mutiny penalties)

- sunset (discard the lowest value card in the adventure row, gaining it as a trauma or discarding if a skill)

The turns continue until you win (by getting your ship across all four map cards to safe harbor) or lose (by a mutiny or running out of sailing cards).

Game in progress, right before I win

Review 

I have never played a solo tabletop game before (meaning one meant for only one player), and I really liked this one. The rules are easily grasped, gameplay moves along swiftly, there are meaningful decisions, and there is a lot of tension—it is hard to win, and if you do, it will be by the skin of your teeth (I played five times and won only twice, both times in the nick of time). The art is gorgeous, too. And I liked the multiple functions of the sailing cards; they are cleverly done. Overall, this one is a winner.

Rating: A