The Toymaker's Tale

The Christmas trees are down, the decorations put away. Some of the long-awaited toys are being played with – others, not so much. But as long as the toymakers got our money, they’ll be happy, right?

 Maybe not. A few years ago, the American journalist David Pogue conducted a fascinating interview with Melissa and Doug Bernstein – known for their billion dollar toy brand, ‘Melissa & Doug’. They specialise in high quality, low-tech toys, and despite the advent of screens and smartphones, had just recorded their 32nd straight year of growth.

On the face of it, Melissa has it all: a loving husband, six high-achieving children and four homes – including a 38,000-square-foot mansion with its own bowling alley, basketball court, and arcade. She says: ‘I can certainly admit that I have enjoyed the material trappings that come from being successful, all those material rewards that make us feel that we’ve “made it”’. 

Yet you may have guessed there’s a ‘but’ coming.

Melissa went on to say: ‘From my earliest recollections, I felt that something was profoundly wrong deep within my being. Why am I here? What is the meaning of life if we are all ultimately going to die? I felt utter despair’.

For most of her life, she hid this ‘existential depression’. Her only therapy was writing what she calls ‘verses’. As a 5-year-old she wrote: ‘I am fearful, oh so fearful, if you do not show me light, I will lose the will to live, and choose to end this futile fight’.

From the age of 11 she would battle with various eating disorders: ‘I controlled everything I could control since I could not control my thoughts’. For close to a year, when at college, she carried a bottle of pills everywhere, carefully researched to be able to stop her heart.

Finally, she sought help. She shares her story in the self-published book ‘Lifelines’, which contains some of the 3,000 ‘verses’ she had written, but never showed to anyone before. An accompanying website offers help to other sufferers. The front of the book proclaims Melissa’s goal: ‘Today I saved a life, although it was my very own, which won’t serve a greater purpose till I rescue lives unknown.

Melissa’s story is instructive in several ways. As Pogue commented, we may assume that ‘consumption makes you happy, money makes you happy’ – but here’s someone who had it all and was still miserable. Indeed, as a society we have more than previous generations could have dreamed of, but as Melissa says, ‘the next pandemic is depression’.

Yet Melissa’s story is perhaps not as hopeful as it seems on the surface.

The sceptic who visits her website – which Pogue said ‘might end up saving lives’ – is immediately presented with the option to ‘Explore Products’, such as essential oil diffusers. It seems less a lifesaving resource, more just another way to make money.

But even if her motivations are completely philanthropic, those who remember how the story began will notice that Melissa never answered the questions that tortured her from childhood: ‘Why am I here? What is the meaning of life if we are all ultimately going to die?’

Pogue said of ‘Lifelines’ – ‘there may be people who owe their continued existence to this enterprise’. Melissa’s book proclaims her goal to ‘rescue lives unknown’. But what neither of them address is why that’s important. Why are lives worth saving, if we’re all ultimately going to die?

This is a time of year when many are despairing. It’s hard not to notice the frequent news reports of young, healthy people dying suddenly, with no cause of death given.

What can give them – and all of us – hope? I would suggest the answer is indeed found in verses – not the 3,000 written by Melissa, but the 31,102 in the Bible. The verse numbers themselves are not part of the original text, but added much later. In fact, they can sometimes mask the fact that the Bible is a story – which is why, in recent years, some Bible publishers have begun printing ‘Reader’s Editions’ without them.

The Bible’s story answers the questions that have tortured Melissa and others for so long: Why am I here? Why do we have the sense that something has gone profoundly wrong? Is there any hope?

Melissa’s story may save some from thinking that ‘stuff’ will satisfy. But finding true hope requires finding our place in a deeper, truer, story. It can give what her book can only promise: ‘an inspirational journey from profound darkness to radiant light’.

Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 9th January 2025

Hunter Biden and a Father's Pardon

Last Monday, US President Joe Biden carried out a presidential duty for the final time when he pardoned two Turkeys, Peach and Blossom. The tradition of a President pardoning a turkey in the run up to Thanksgiving has its roots in the American Civil War, when Abraham Lincoln agreed to a request from his son to spare a turkey named Jack.

As President Biden pardoned the turkeys, there was lots of smiling and laughter. The mood was quite different a few days later however, as Biden did something he had repeatedly promised not to – and issued a post-Thanksgiving pardon to his son Hunter.

As recently as June, Biden said he would ‘not pardon’ his son. who was facing sentencing in two criminal cases on federal gun charges and federal tax evasion charges. Hunter, the first child of a sitting president to be criminally convicted, faced hearings later this month and potentially 17 years behind bars.

In July, the President’s spokesperson denied rumours that a pardon had been discussed: ‘It’s still a no, it will be a no, it is a no and I don’t have anything else to add. Will he pardon his son? No.’ Back then, there was still an election on the horizon, and Biden was still the Democratic candidate. Now, with just 50 days left in office, he has nothing to lose.

Will returning President Donald Trump follow suit and pardon some of those involved in the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021? Biden’s decision makes it easier for him to do so.

People are understandably outraged. CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said that the pardon will ‘tarnish Joe Biden’s legacy…he lied to us for a long time.’

Yet many of the same people who are outraged by Biden’s behaviour (or who will be outraged if Trump follows suit) expect God to do the same thing. The German poet Henrich Heine was asked by a priest on his deathbed if he expected God to forgive him. He is reported to have replied: ‘Of course God will forgive me; that's his job’. That is still a common attitude today: People may be less sure whether there is a God or not – but they are confident that if he exists, he’ll forgive them.  

This attitude is sadly reinforced at many funerals, where those present are assured that the deceased is now in heaven, despite them having had no time for God and never asking for forgiveness. President Biden declared in May that ‘no one is above the law’. It’s a sentiment most of us agree with – yet somehow we expect God to act differently.

At this time of year, many people remember Jesus coming into the world. But why did he come? As Tim Keller memorably put it, Jesus came so that God could end evil without ending us. Jesus’ death was not a tragic accident – it was the very reason he came. God tells us that ‘all have sinned’ – and ‘the wages of sin is death’ (Romans 3:23; 6:23). But on the cross Jesus paid that penalty, so that his people could go free.

Could God not just have forgiven us without Jesus having to come and die? In other words, could he not have let our wrong thoughts, motivations, words and actions go unpunished? The news headlines show we don’t think much of a human ruler who does the same. We wouldn’t want God turning a blind eye to those who sin against us or those we love – so why should it be different when it comes to our own wrongs? Certainly, God is love – but that doesn’t mean he will set aside his own law. Instead, he did something better. Jesus’ death displayed both God’s righteousness and justice (‘this was to show his righteousness…so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus’ – Romans 3:25-26).

The carol Hark the Herald Angels Sing describes the wonder of what Jesus coming into the world brings: ‘God and sinners reconciled’. That reconciliation was not cheap, however. Jesus, as the carol goes on to say, was ‘born that man no more may die’. For that to be possible, he would have to go to the cross. And if God, unlike Joe Biden, would not even pardon his own Son (as he bore his peoples’ sins) – how could we expect him simply to pardon us?

The good news of the gospel is that the price has been paid – all we have to do is believe.

Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 5th December 2024.

Good News For Everyone: Wigtown Event

At the end of September, Good News For Everyone (formerly Gideons UK) held an event in Wigtown Baptist Church, to tie in with the Wigtown Book Festival. There were various updates on the work of the organisation, and also interviews with Stephen, as well as Daniel Sturgeon (pastor of Stranraer Baptist Church). The Wigtownshire Branch is currently looking for new members as they seek to continue their good work of giving out Bibles in schools, placing them in hotels, and producing other helpful resources.