The Freedom Simone Biles Found in Letting Go

In the summer of 2021, the world watched Simone Biles — the most decorated gymnast in history — step away from Olympic competition in Tokyo. Mid-rotation, she withdrew from the team final and then from four individual events. The "twisties" had seized her, a terrifying condition where a gymnast loses spatial awareness while spinning through the air. Critics called it weakness. Some called it quitting.

But Biles had discovered something the scoreboard could never measure: she was more than her medals. "I have to do what's right for me," she said. In a culture that demanded she perform, her greatest act of strength was the freedom to stop.

Three years later, at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Biles returned. She won three gold medals and a silver. She smiled wider, competed looser, and performed with a joy that hadn't always been visible before. She was free — not because the pressure was gone, but because it no longer owned her.

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 under yokes we were never meant to carry — the need to prove ourselves, to earn love, to perform our worth before God and others.

The freedom Christ offers is not freedom from the arena. It is freedom from the lie that your value depends on the score. You are already loved. Step onto the mat — or step away from it — knowing whose you are.