The Courage to Let Go of the Bar

In the summer of 2021, Simone Biles stood on the Olympic stage in Tokyo as the most decorated gymnast in history — and she walked away. Mid-competition, she withdrew from the team final and most individual events, telling the world she had lost her spatial awareness in the air, a terrifying condition gymnasts call "the twisties." The backlash was immediate. Critics called her a quitter. Commentators questioned her courage.

But Biles had discovered something most of us spend a lifetime avoiding: the freedom that comes from refusing to let other people's expectations own you.

Three years later, she returned at the Paris Olympics in 2024 and won three gold medals and a silver. She was fiercer, more joyful, more fully herself than ever before. But here is what matters most — her freedom did not begin on that Paris podium. It began the moment she stepped back in Tokyo. She was free before she ever won again.

The Apostle Paul wrote, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1). So many of us live chained to the scoreboard — other people's approval, the relentless pressure to perform, the fear of being called weak.

The freedom Christ offers is not freedom to never struggle. It is freedom from the tyranny of proving your worth. Your identity was settled at the cross. You are already beloved. Now you are free to live like it.