How I Heard the Call and Accepted My Bitcoin Mission
Plus the team grows to 2
I told my roommate this after six months of studying Bitcoin after it “clicked” in April 2020.
“If I’m right about Bitcoin I’ll never have to work a day in my life.”
I had been fired from my full-time dream job a year earlier, and was working 5 hours a week writing for a data science software company. But I didn’t think about wanting more money.
I was following my interests: the history of money, Bitcoin, and entrepreneurship. Every day was a blessing. Eager to study. Podcasts. Books. Loving our mission and pure hearts of my new Bitcoiner friends. Plus, the truths you see after studying it. The mathematical beauty of humanity adopting it. Confidence my savings would hold their value so excited to take an entrepreneurial risk.
But then one day, about a year later after a tough 2021 physically, mentally, and spiritually (I wouldn’t have used that last word because I hadn’t reverted to my faith yet), I got greedy.
I let myself get influenced by money- and status-driven culture.
Having conviction in Bitcoin then, you believed you can buy several lifetimes worth of savings with $100. A couple months earlier, I remember telling a Bitcoiner friend who was worrying about bills and providing for his family, “If Bitcoin is going to go where you think it will, why are you stressing?”
But I feel into the trap too. 2022 I followed a path that was money first, not Lord’s will first. (And no surprise, very little money came in.) I didn't want to spend on good causes. I was unhappy. This went on for longer than I’d like to admit, with vestiges present during practicing life.
Just a few months ago, I knew mission was something to do with Bitcoin and/or faith. But I was doing neither. You suffer when you don’t listen to the Lord.
Until finally, I gave in. I stopped focusing on what I thought was a faster way to money. And started this blog, the start of figuring out whatever I’ll do in the world of money and faith. I’ve got mission peace again even though it’s awkward to start. But the graces, signs, and opportunities are here, as you’d expect. Examples:
The team expanded from 1 person to 2. If I was a better listener I would have made this hire weeks earlier.
Found a beautiful Canadian Bitcoin conference to go to in July. Visit friends. Meet a mentor in person.
Singing lessons — and the tutor I found online is from Spain (I’m learning Spanish) — plus an opportunity to share music key to my deepening conversion at a parish pub night.
Small prayers answered (which Airbnbs to book, easy decisions for which flights to book).
Clarity on next steps for this mission through action and conversation and prayer.
Spending money on good things.
Yesterday in spiritual direction over beers Father suggested that I go be a missionary first and foremost rather than run a company to help Catholics adopt Bitcoin. So I’m going to try that. I’m stoked!
I still have conviction that I’ll never need to earn again, despite not having enough money in dollar terms today to be the sole provider for a family for 25-35 years. But in Bitcoin terms I do. And I still want to work, because that’s how God designed us.
So let’s do it.
More to come next week.
God Bless and thank you for your prayers.
Today’s Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
"No one can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon."Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink,
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds in the sky;
they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?'
or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?'
All these things the pagans seek.
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.
Sufficient for a day is its own evil."