by Patrick Sawyer, Missional Living Pastor
In August 2024, Samantha Ponder was fired as an analyst by ESPN. In a recent podcast, she broke her silence about the firing. 1 In the podcast, Ponder claims one of the reasons she believe she was fired was because of some of her public support for women, such as Riley Gaines, and their support for not allowing trans women to compete in women’s sports. The purpose of this blog is not to dispute the reason for her firing, but to reveal two very important truths that we can learn from Ponder about the Christian life and living on mission.
First, there is the truth that we should not build our foundation on sand, but on the rock. In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus reveals that His people should not build their house on sand, but on the rock, which is on Jesus Himself. In her interview, Ponder stated that her firing was truly a blessing and a gift from God, as it revealed to her that she had been building her life on sand. In an instant, she realized that when the storms came, her house would quickly fall because it was built on sand. One minute, she had everything: an exciting career, money, and fame, and in the snap of a finger, it was all gone with nothing to show for it. Now that she is on the other side of the storm, she is beginning to build her foundation on the rock of Jesus, and her relationship with the Lord is stronger than ever, and her life is so much stronger and better. The truth is that in Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus reveals that we will all go through storms, but if we are building our lives on sand when the storms come, our lives will be destroyed. The good news is if we build our lives on the rock, which is Jesus, when the storms come, we will be able to weather the storm because Jesus is with us and will lead, guide, strengthen us, and help us get through it stronger than we were before.
Second, there is the truth that we should not store our treasures on earth, but in heaven. In Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus tells His people not to store up treasures on earth, where rust and moth destroy, but in heaven, where neither rust nor moth destroys. Dan Grider, in his book You Were Made For This states, “Jesus warns us against living for short-term gain. He encouraged us to shift our value system toward living for a lasting reward instead of the temporary shot of adrenaline this life can give.” 2 Ponder also revealed in her interview how, after her firing, she realized she had been living her life for temporary things. She was living her life for the sake of celebrity status, money, fame, and awards, but the problem she soon realized was that all of these were temporary and would not last; they would also one day be gone, leaving nothing to show for them. The other problem is that all of these things can be taken from you in an instant, as she experienced. In an instant, all of these things she was chasing were gone with nothing to show for them.
As Christians, we must ask ourselves what we are living for. Are we living for temporary things that, although they can bring us temporary happiness, will not last? Or are we living for eternal things that cannot be taken away and are eternal and can truly give us joy and satisfaction? Are we living our lives for ourselves and trying to build our kingdom, or are we living for Jesus and building His kingdom? Are we living a selfish life, or are we living a selfless life? Are we living to serve ourselves, or are we living to serve others? Only one of these lives leads to true peace, hope, and joy. Only one of these lives is eternal; the other is only temporary, which can bring us temporary happiness, but not eternal joy.
In his book The Second Mountain, David Brooks reveals two mountains. 3 The first mountain is all about living for yourself. Seeking your own joy and happiness. The second mountain is all about not living for yourself, but living and serving others. He goes on to say the first mountain can bring you happiness, but only the second mountain can lead to true joy. He states, “We are pleased by happiness, but we are transformed by joy. When we experience joy, we often feel we have glimpsed into a deeper and truer layer of reality. A narcissist can be happy, but a narcissist can never be joyful, because the surrender of self is the precise thing a narcissist can’t do.” 4
As Christians, we must not live for earthly and temporary things that do not last; instead, we need to live for heavenly and eternal things that cannot be taken away and will endure. How do we do this? By loving God first and loving others. By serving others and by sharing the truth and hope of the gospel to a lost and broken world. At the end of our lives, when we stand before God, you can be certain He will not ask us how much money we made, how successful we were in life, or how many awards we won, but He will ask us how many disciples we made (Matthew 28:18-20). Grider states, “One day we will stand before Jesus with our small, spike-centered life on earth in the rearview mirror. Ahead lies the limitless length of the ongoing rope. In that moment, we will be ecstatic that we chose to invest our only life by driving our stake deep into the soil of the Kingdom that Jesus opened for us. We will be fully aware that the only way we could ever have lived a discipleship-based Kingdom of life was through the ability and power He gave us.” 5 Are we ready to stand before God, displaying the life that we have lived? Are you living for your kingdom or God’s kingdom?
1 Sage Steele, The Sage Steele Show, interview with Samantha Ponder (July 16th, 2025).
2 Dan Grider, You Were Made For This: Following Jesus Where You Live, Work, and Play (Grand Rapids, MI: Doublebay Publishing, 2018), 205.
3 David Brooks, The Second Mountain: The Quest For a Moral Life (New York, NY: Random House, 2019).
4 Ibid., xxiv.
5 Dan Grider, You Were Made For This: Following Jesus Where You Live, Work, and Play (Grand Rapids, MI: Doublebay Publishing, 2018), 207.