The organisation I work for is currently downsizing. In the interest of fairness all of our jobs are being made redundant; a new staffing structure has been designed and we are all eligible to apply for the new, but fewer, posts available.
So I have recently been through the process of looking redundancy in the eye, going for a competitive interview within the new process, and fortunately for me, being re-employed but in a new role. At least I know now a little of my own future: many of my colleagues are still in the midst of the process, and it is never a comfortable one.
Interesting that the emphasis – quite rightly – is on the job being made redundant, not the person. Not actually what it feels like, when the letter with your name on lands on your desk.
Our Western society pushes too many of us to be identified by what we DO rather than by who we ARE. How easy it is to say "I am being made redundant" – because that is how it feels….. my worth stripped away, my value tossed aside by others over whom I have no control.
One of the defining things for me about my Christian belief is that it's about risking living on the hunch that I am valued – loved even – just because I am me. That's what I guess it means to be made in the image of God, to be loved simply because I am.
If we could find ways of valuing one another more for who we are rather than just what we do – think what might happen: there might be a lot less blaming of one another, a lot less high-handed positioning by politicians, a lot more respect for minorities, for those who live on the edge, for those sqeezed out of work, for those who have less power in society.
And there might be a lot more reflection, individually and together, on what we might want to become, not in order to prove a point, or to achieve, or to trample over someone else to get our way, but simply to respond in thankfulness for the gifts that are ours, and to seek ways to build each other up in identity and confidence.
And the world might just become a little less of a scary place.
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