Here's where my heart is this Reformation Day. I'm grateful for the legacy of grace that loves first. A friend of mine recently told me that her teenage daughter doesn't wonder 'what would Jesus do' but rather that "he would love first." Love is the first move of God in Jesus. Through it we have some kind of shot at love being our first move too. Corruption and purity, as the prayer names, are held in tension by every human institution, by every human, and by me. No sooner do I say, "Love first," then do corrupt purity codes kick in - the things I hold close and dear can quickly become a measure of someone else's humanity and worthiness.
So today, Reformation Day, I remember that I am loved first. I'm pretty sure that love doesn't always win the moment. Inflicted suffering is evidence to the contrary. But loving first is my hope - "knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts..."*
Hope is different than optimism. Optimism is a bit blind to actual human experience. Optimism says that things are going to work out in the end as form of denial. Hope sees corruption AND purity. Hope sees my own part in that murky paradox. Hope does not disappoint because it sees the truth of suffering and frees me to love first as I am first loved. Happy Reformation Day.
Beyond by Colleen Briggs (2013)
*Christian Bible, Letter to the Romans, chapter 3, verse 5 [Romans 3:5]
Thank you. This is a great message for today and always.
ReplyDeleteCindy
A single RuneScape fan has created a HD client for Old School RuneScape that is absolutely stunning. Old School RuneScape has never been the prettiest game https://www.lolga.com/old-school-runescape-gold out there, but players who don't care about graphics don't really mind. But what if Old School RuneScape could look graphically impressive? At least in comparison to current RuneScape graphics? A post has recently blown up on the Old School RuneScape subreddit, the post is by Tottty and shows a next-gen RuneScape client that takes the graphics level of RuneScape to a completely new level.
ReplyDeleteThe post received major support from the games community, and Jordan (Tottty) decided to give a little history behind the client's existence. Jordan explains that the client was merely a side project for him when he was 17 and learning to program as a hobby outside of school and other activities. Jagex, the developers of RuneScape, then invited him to Jagex HQ to discuss implementing Jordan's client into the live game.
Unfortunately, that never happened, so Jordan sold the client off to a third-party developer, which funnily enough they didn't end up finishing either. The OSRS Gold third-party developer then gave the rights for the client back to Jordan, which then resulted in Jordan deciding to create a new one. Jordan states that "So here I am in 2020, giving it another shot. After seeing the shift in perception of 3rd party clients in both the community and Jagex's posts, I figured now would be a good time to realistically be allowed to release this."