Border Cars lies empty
It has been a horrendous couple of months for job losses in Stranraer. Over thirty jobs were lost when Border Cars went into administration in July and the following month Brambles Tea Room and Jumping Jacks Soft Play closed. Since then Thomas Cook and William Hill have gone the same way, with a number of job losses at Tesco as well. That would be a heavy blow for a town double the size of Stranraer. Almost all of us will know someone affected – and many of us will also know of others who have lost their jobs recently, even if their plight didn’t make the headlines. The inconvenience we may have experienced of having holidays cancelled or having less places to take an energetic toddler pale into insignificance compared to the heartbreak of those who have lost their only source of income, while all their expenses stay the same.
Gone are the days when people started a job in their mid-teens and were there until they retired. In a world of increasing uncertainty, job security is something that fewer and fewer people can take for granted. In fact, even the original Thomas Cook himself saw his fledgling travel business collapse back in 1848, only to recover a few years later.
As well as the heartache, there has also been anger at how some of the job losses have come about, not least with the news that the former boss of Thomas Cook received a £750,000 bonus in 2017.
It all seems a far cry from the man who founded the company in the mid-1800s. According to one modern biography, Thomas Cook got a taste for travel as a village missionary. He would travel round villages preaching, distributing tracts and setting up Sunday schools. We’re told that his faith ‘gave him a strong desire to help the downtrodden’, and much of the company’s profits were given to relief of the poor and charitable work. Cook was also involved in the growing temperance movement, after becoming convinced that cheap alcohol exacerbated the ‘poverty, crime, strife and wretchedness’ of the people.
Cook’s approach brought him into conflict with his son John who ‘believed that business should be kept separate from religion and philanthropy’. However the different approaches of father and son complemented each other. John was certainly more concerned with the bottom line, leaving the company with 84 offices and 2692 staff (almost 1000 of them in Egypt). Yet both father and son were interested in world travel for reasons other than just profits. By organising the first tour party ever to go around the world, Cook hoped to ‘pioneer the way for the golden age when nations shall learn war no more’ (a reference to Isaiah 2:4). John likewise believed ‘that the world would be a pleasanter place of habitation if all the dwellers on its surface were brought closer together, and that international travel was one of the best preservatives against international wars’.
While their vision may seem idealistic, it was an attempt to view their work as part of the bigger picture. That’s certainly an important emphasis to try and retain today – both for employers and employees. As a pastor, part of my role includes counselling people who have recently lost their jobs, have been out of work long-term – or whose problems are more in the area of overwork. Since work forms such a big part of many of our lives, it’s no surprise that the Bible has plenty to say about it. And as with many things, we could sum up its teaching by saying that work is a good thing, but not a God thing. In other words, work isn’t the necessary evil that it’s often thought of – but neither should it have the number one place in our lives, where our families or our souls are sacrificed on the idol of our careers.
Whether we are currently employed or not, it’s important for us to remember that our work doesn’t define us. The Bible defines us all as people made in the image of God. The big danger of placing our identity in work or family or anything that can be taken away from you is that once it’s gone, our identity has been so tied up with it that we don’t know who we are anymore. Rather, we have a dignity and value that can’t be taken away from us, no matter what outward changes take place in our lives. If you have work, be thankful for it, but beware of defining yourself (or anyone else) by what you do.
Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 24th October 2019