Steve Cossack, caretaker of Bridge Chapel, Liverpool, tells his story
Football and the Beatles have made Liverpool famous throughout the world.
Liverpudlians, or ‘Scousers’, have a keen sense of humour and are known for big-heartedness, fierce loyalty and passion.
Steve Cossack, or ‘Cossy’, was born into a loving family in the Dingle, an inner-city, culturally diverse area of Toxteth. Cossy’s father was a docker and his mother a seamstress. His was just a normal, working-class family that never had much money, but never went hungry. Cossy was always made to go to Sunday School, not because his parents were particularly moral but rather because it got him out of the house on a Sunday afternoon.
On weekdays, when Cossy should have been at school, he used to get registered then ‘bunk off’. As to his credentials, he was voted the guy most likely to have a prison sentence, which, eventually, is just what happened. School was in a ‘mean’ area and children grew up quickly. As Cossy summarises: ‘Your fists got hard, your wits got keen and you learnt to survive’.
Wonderful scam
He admits that he drove his poor mother to distraction. As so many did in the Dingle, Cossy’s activities descended from petty theft to grand larceny. To this day, and with shame, he still remembers the first time he stole. It was from his sister’s ‘leprosy box’ in which she used to collect for charity.
Leaving school at the age of 15, Cossy started out in the butchery trade. But before long he was off to sea. Soon he learnt that there are ways to earn money other than by honest labour. Cossy explains: ‘By the age of 26 I had had enough of this four-letter word they call W-O-R-K, and I decided to retire’. He had ‘a wonderful little scam’ going that enabled him to have a villa in Spain plus a brand new boat and car.
Sunday School teacher
One thing he never forgot from his Sunday School days was when his teacher – an old, Irish lady with white hair – said to him: ‘Steven, one day everyone of us will stand before God and give an account of ourselves’. Cossy’s reaction was that he didn’t want her to talk to him about a God whom he regarded as a nonentity.
Prison and plans
Although life seemed good, his wealthy lifestyle was to be cut short for, as Cossy puts it: ‘I had my collar felt. I spent a number of years in Walton prison’.
Being caught and sentenced had no positive effect on Cossy. A complete absence of any sense of guilt or regret revealed that he had totally silenced his conscience. As far as he was concerned, his type of crime was victimless.
When he was released, and with no ideas of reform, Cossy headed back to Spain, the sun, his villa and his wife. Plans were being made for just one more ‘big hit’ which would net a vast fortune for those involved. On a return visit to Liverpool, everything was set up and ready to go. But then he met Bill.
Bill’s questions
Bill was an old mate from football and school. When they met again, there was the usual catching up: ‘How’s it going?’; ‘Are you married?’; ‘Do you have kids?’ Then Bill asked: ‘What are you doing now, son?’. Cossy boasted that he was just about to retire at the age of 26.
Bill replied: ‘I’m made up for you’ (local slang for ‘I’m pleased for you’). ‘What then?’
So Cossy responded, ‘I’ve heard that the average family has 2.4 children, so I’m going to make 2.4 children and settle down.’
Bill said: ‘I’m really pleased for you. What then?’
Cossy answered: ‘Well, you know they are going to want for nothing. They will have private education and the best of everything’.
‘Great’, Bill said. ‘I’m so pleased. What then?’
‘I’m going to watch my kids grow up. I believe the best thing since sliced bread is grandkids. Grandkids are God’s reward for not killing your own!’
Bill just responded with: ‘You know what, lad, I’m over the moon for you, I’m really made up. What then?’
Hardest smack
By now Cossy was beginning to feel u n c o m f o r t a b l e because he had worked out what was coming. He said to Bill: ‘I’m going to die, aren’t I? We all die. One out of one dies. I am not going to be the one who breaks the mould’. Bill came back: ‘and what then?’ Suddenly the words of the Sunday School teacher from years before came back. He felt as though somebody had smacked him in the mouth ‘like the hardest hit in the solar plexus you’ve ever had’. He felt sick when he realised that his teacher was right, that he was going to stand before God and give an account of what he had done with his life.
For the next six months Cossy recalls how his mind was in turmoil. His thoughts were everywhere. He would go to bed with big questions going round and round in his mind. He longed for the thoughts to just go away so he could sleep but, as he puts it, his head felt ‘cabbaged, with six months of mental GBH’.
Biggest decision
One night he came to the point in his life when he concluded that if Jesus Christ is worth anything, then he is worth everything. He decided there and then that he had to give up his self-centred life. He had to pack in the way he lived and, more than that, he would give back every single thing that he had taken from others. That was hard for Cossy. After having had a massive disposable weekly income, he was now in the position where he couldn’t even afford a pair of shoes.
There was one thing that he still had that was very precious to him – his family. Suppose he announced to them that he had become a Christian. He feared that his wife would think he had flipped and she would clear the house, leaving his possessions in a bin bag on the front door step. He had been bin-bagged before, and didn’t want it to happen again.
Eventually one Sunday night he told Cath everything: ‘For some time I’ve been bothered. I’ve realised my life’s got to change, and I’ve given my life to Jesus Christ’. Cossy thought that there would be a kick-off. To his surprise, all was quiet. That night he slept in the other room, putting the bed near the door, fearing his wife might come in and stab him in his sleep! But all was quiet.
Come Wednesday, as they sat down to tea, Cath said: ‘I want to talk to you’. ‘Uh oh!’ Cossy thought, imagining she was about to leave. He figured though that if Jesus is worth anything, he is worth everything and that if she didn’t want to stay with him so be it.
To his utter amazement, Cath confessed that for the last six months she had been aware of a deep sense of her own sinfulness and that Jesus Christ had been speaking to her. She had wanted to become a Christian but was scared of losing Cossy. That very week, though, she had decided that if Jesus was worth anything, he was worth everything. She had become a Christian two days after him!
The time is now
Liverpool Football Club has a chaplain; Cossy’s old mate Bill, whose primary job is as the pastor of Bridge Chapel in Liverpool. When Cossy and Cath turned up for church, Bill’s reaction was: ‘O Lord, no, not him, not her, not tonight’. This was because Cossy used to wind him up terribly. But Cossy remembers the sermon clearly – while Bill later said it was one of his worst, Cossy thinks it was one of his best.
Bill preached on how Pharoah had hardened his heart against God when Moses had asked that he let the Israelites leave Egypt. Eventually God himself hardened Pharoah’s heart. That was the point when God’s offer of mercy was withdrawn. Bill said that there is a point when God’s offer of salvation will be withdrawn. No one knows when that will be, but the Bible teaches that now is the day of salvation, now is the time to be saved. So don’t put off trusting Jesus. There is no guarantee about tomorrow. Respond now, before the offer is over.
Cossy and Cath knew they had responded to God, and were resting in the fact that he loved them, had given his son Jesus to die for their sin and had given them a new life in him. Now they could sleep at night!
A PASSION FOR LIFE 2014 MISSION
This is an abridged chapter taken from the book A Passion for Life, real life stories about faith, written by D.J. Carswell for the Passion for Life 2014 mission and is used with permission. The book is available for as little as £1.00 from www.10ofthose.com who can also be contacted by phone on 0844 879 3243.
