Popular podcast host and author Annie F. Downs offers advice to play your cards right in life

New York Times bestselling author and speaker Annie F. Downs visited Liberty University’s Convocation on Friday, advising students on how to view their life choices through the lens of Scripture.

Downs is the founder of the That Sounds Fun Network, which creates Christian podcasts, including the popular flagship podcast by the same name where she regularly sits down with some of the nation’s top Christian leaders and influencers, from pastors to athletes and musicians. She has written eight Christian lifestyle books; her most recent, “That Sounds Fun,” was released in February and hit the New York Times bestseller list.

Downs began her address by recalling a time when a 5-year-old boy, Troy, bested her in the board game Chutes & Ladders. The child was getting lucky by reaching every ladder up the board while Downs landed on the chutes that forced her backward. She began feeling an odd amount of anger from this unfair outcome. In that moment, Downs identified her frustration as coming from more than just the innocent board game.

“I realized as I was laying there that I was getting mad at him because my whole life felt like I was playing Chutes and Ladders and losing,” Downs said. “I wasn’t mad at Troy. I was mad that other people were getting the things I wanted and that they weren’t earning them. It can feel like we’re all on the same board, that we’ve all done the best we could, and it just isn’t enough.”

She explained that there will always be people who have more success in areas like careers, romantic relationships, social standing, or anything else that we aspire to, and to see life as a board game will always end in frustration and disappointment. Instead, Downs suggested to view life as a game of solitaire — a card game with virtually infinite combinations of actions and choices for the player to make based on the shuffling of the cards.

“The hand that you have been dealt is unlike anybody else’s in the world, and this is why we need you; this is why you cannot give up,” Downs said. “You are the only you, you are the only one whose hand has been dealt the way your hand has been dealt, and in order for the world to go right and go well and go toward God, we want to bring light where there is darkness, we need you to play your hand. God gets the most glory when we win with the hand we’ve been dealt.”

The cards in life’s deck can come from multiple areas, Downs explained, including your hometown, your family life, the people who love or hurt you, and your career. Downs emphasized that each person’s calling is unique, and the way to find that isn’t always in asking God, “What do you want me to do with my life?”

“A better question,” she said, “is, ‘Based on what I know today about God, myself, about the world, what’s my next best move?’ If we’re playing solitaire, then we know how the ending looks, but we’re not trying to figure how every move is going to go until you make the next one. This is why you need to get to know yourself.”

To find those answers, Downs pointed to what we learn about God throughout Scripture and His commandment to love others as we would want ourselves to be loved. In the “game of life,” Downs explained, we can help one another win by helping others see how to play their cards right.

“The more you know (what Scripture says), the more you know who you are, the more you know why you’re here, the more you play your hand and win and the Gospel goes farther,” she said. “I do not love everything that is in my hand, I don’t love everything about the way my game is going, and I’ve made some mistakes and moved cards incorrectly. Thank God for people who help and tell you how to move your cards, because we are not here to compete with each other, we’re here to help one another win.”

“This is how we change the world: by playing the hand we’ve been dealt and by helping our friends win at their hands too,” Downs added in closing.

Downs’ visit to Convocation served as the first session of Liberty’s second annual Limitless Summit, hosted by the Office of Equity and Inclusion, Career Services, and the Student Government Association. Throughout the afternoon, students had the opportunity to attend three panel discussions in the School of Business Towns auditorium about ways they can glorify God through their careers and be used as Christian witnesses in the workplace.