When God Says Quit Your Job: David Garretson's Leap Into AI and Faith

Three days before David Garretson planned to resign from his secure government job, his boss offered him a 25% raise. For government work, that's not just generous—it's practically unheard of. He had a fourth child on the way. His side business had fewer customers than when he'd started praying about the leap. And God was still saying go.

So he sat in that meeting, smiled, said thank you, and three days later turned in his resignation anyway.

That was fifteen years ago. Today, Garretson is doing it again—this time with AI Codemonkey, a startup that's reimagining how software gets built. And once again, the math doesn't add up. No paycheck. A family of seven. A vision that requires daily decisions: trust God, or start sending out resumes.

Every day I gotta wake up and make a decision. Am I going to trust God? Am I going to freak out and start looking for a job?

When AI Threatened Everything

David spent fifteen years as a software developer for hire, building systems for everyone from small businesses to multinational pharmaceutical companies. He was good at it. Then, about a year ago, he started experimenting with AI—and realized it was better at programming than most human developers.

It was the kind of revelation that should have felt like a career-ending diagnosis. Instead, it happened during a fast. Garretson kept praying, and a new vision emerged: what if AI wasn't the threat, but the tool? What if he could build a software factory where entrepreneurs could describe their needs in an interview, and AI would produce 100% bug-free, regulatory-compliant code?

Ai Code Monkey was born from that fast. David is tackling the hardest use cases first—highly regulated industries like banking and healthcare—because he believes programmers have been a roadblock for too many entrepreneurs. His proprietary system doesn't just generate code; it mathematically identifies and removes bugs, delivering something human developers can't guarantee: perfection.

I feel like the programmer has been a roadblock and a lot of entrepreneurs being able to get out there and do whatever vision is in their head.

The Wrong Scoreboard

Here's what surprised David most about launching his new venture: the reaction from his own community. Men in his Bible study groups—go-getters, business leaders, sales guys—who couldn't quite say it out loud but communicated it clearly enough. They thought he should get a job.

The issue wasn't laziness. David works hard every day. The issue was the scoreboard. Without a paycheck coming in, his friends couldn't see success. They were using the only KPI that made sense to them: money.

Garretson doesn't have a neat solution for that tension. But he has a warning for driven Christian leaders: What key performance indicators are you using to evaluate yourself? What metric tells you whether you're being obedient to God's call?

Money makes sense for business. But what about you personally? Are you pointed towards the right target? I don't think that money is the right mechanism for determining that in our Christian walk.

It's a question that cuts. Because if faithfulness doesn't show up on a balance sheet, how do you measure it? How do you stay the course when the world—and even your brothers in Christ—can't see what you see?

The Basics Still Matter

When asked what advice he'd give to Christians trying to integrate faith and business, David didn't talk strategy. He talked foundation. Daily Bible reading. Tithing. Prayer that covers every decision. Fasting.

He's amazed by how many strong Christians he meets who've let those disciplines slide. And he knows why it matters: when you break from the herd to follow what Christ is telling you to do, especially in business, the challenges come fast. Satan will use every tool he can find—including your health, your finances, and your friends' doubts.

You can't afford a weak foundation when you're building something that doesn't make sense on paper.

Homeschool, Volunteerism, and Passing It On

David and his wife homeschool their five children. She does most of the teaching; he's the sole breadwinner. It's a high-stress arrangement that requires constant faith. But it's also produced something unexpected: a family that's fallen in love with service.

They volunteer as the president couple for their local homeschool group and for the state nonprofit that has protected parents' rights to homeschool for over 40 years. Their kids have caught the volunteer bug, too, serving so consistently at church that the staff jokes the whole operation will shut down if the Garretson family of seven gets sick at the same time.

Faith isn't just what David teaches his kids. It's what they see him live—daily decisions to trust God when the numbers don't cooperate, to serve communities that matter, to build something that requires more than logic.

Living in the Gap

There are mornings when David wakes up and wonders why he didn't stay at that government job. He loved the work. He loved the management. He had security, respect, and now—hypothetically—a 25% raise compounding over fifteen years.

But he also knows he's exactly where he's supposed to be. Building Ai Code Monkey. Bootstrapping with no paycheck. Trusting God with a vision that doesn't fit anyone else's KPIs.

That's the gap where faith lives—the space between what makes sense and what God said to do. David's story is a reminder that sometimes the most faithful decision looks like the riskiest one. Sometimes obedience means turning in your resignation right after the raise. Sometimes it means waking up every day and choosing trust over the resume update.

Because the math doesn't have to add up if you're following the One who invented mathematics.

I don't have the money coming in to prove that this is where God is pointing me. But prayer—that's the KPI that matters.

If you're in that gap right now—building something that doesn't make sense, following a call that others question—David Garretson's story is for you. Check your foundation. Choose your KPIs carefully. And wake up tomorrow ready to trust God one more day.