Career inspiration from the Prodigal Son
God’s grace is extraordinary. I hadn’t realised quite how extraordinary until I felt inspired to write a book about careers for Christians. As a Career Coach, I realised that my clients long to understand their career purpose and to have meaning in their work.
There are many resources to help people find purpose in their careers, but as I reviewed these resources, I felt there was a ‘God-sized’ hole in them. I wanted to develop some ideas which helped people explore their careers from God’s perspective, to help them pray about their careers and consider career ideas within a Christian framework.
In a time of personal prayer God gave me the GRACE outline which I used in my book, God’s GRACE for Your Career.
G for the gifts God has given you, both natural and spiritual.
R for the relationships you have with God and other people.
A for your abilities; comprising your talents, skills and strengths.
C for your curiosities about the world, which provide clues for your career choices.
E for your experiences, understanding that God uses everything, both good and bad.
My inspiration came from the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) which has much to teach us about God’s grace. The younger son has strayed from his father and gone his own way, and his father lets him go. He gives the younger son his inheritance, including gifts, abilities, curiosities and lets him experience life without a relationship with his father.
Read the story and you’ll know what happens; the younger son squanders his inheritance, he wastes it and uses it up until he is destitute, the lowest of the low, only able to eke out a meagre living feeding pigs and cleaning styes. He knows he is missing out on the life he should have had. He knows there is a better way to live. When he has reached rock bottom he decides to go home, to return to his father.
Then an amazing thing happens. His father is waiting and watching for his younger son. When he sees him, he is filled with compassion and picks up the corners of his outer garment and runs to meet his long-lost son and embraces him. The father reinstates his son, gives him clothes to wear, a ring for his finger, and sandals for his feet, followed by a sumptuous feast.
This is a wonderful story demonstrating God’s grace. The son has lost his way in life but returns home, expecting a lukewarm greeting, hoping to work as a servant. He is bowled over by the unconditional and wholehearted greeting he is offered. His father longs to restore everything his son has lost and immediately reinstates him in the family.
It’s the same for people who feel they have gone their own way and are a bit lost in their careers. They wonder what they are doing or where they are going. They sense that God has something better for them, and they long to make a difference and to do the work God has planned for them (Ephesians 2:10).
As you read the end of the story of the Prodigal Son, you’ll remember there is another brother, an older brother who has stayed at home working in the family business. Although he is not happy about the merciful treatment his younger brother receives, his father’s compassion extends to him as well. ‘“My son”, the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours” (Luke 15:31). He too has access to everything his father has.
Some people feel they have been on the career treadmill for a while, they feel stressed or burnt out despite doing what God wants in their career. They long to experience God’s grace in their careers and feel confident they’re pursuing the career God had in mind for them, but they’re not sure how to go about this.
This is why I wrote my book, to help people experience God’s grace in their careers, to help them get to know themselves better and all that God has gifted them with, to strengthen their relationship with God, to grow their talents, to dive into their curiosities and explore what God has already done in their careers. All of this to set them up for success in their future career, knowing that they are pursing the career God created them for.
And what I’ve discovered, as I’ve coached people using this framework, and as I’ve had feedback from people who have worked through the book, using the Learning Guide, is that God loves to reveal his future plans for you, by exploring what He has already done in your life and career.
As Ken Costa writes, “The better we know ourselves, the more we can imagine what kind of work God might be calling us to” (Ken Costa, God at Work: Living Every Day With Purpose (Alpha International, 2013) pg.57).
So, I invite you to get to know yourself better, to explore the GRACE God has given you for your career. I hope you will realise, as I have, that God has been at work in your career effecting His plan through all the highs and lows, and that His grace is more than enough.