The Vault She Didn't Have to Take

In the summer of 2021, Simone Biles stood at the edge of the Olympic vault runway in Tokyo and did something the world never expected. She withdrew. The greatest gymnast in history — four gold medals in Rio, a move so difficult it bears her name — walked away from the competition. The "twisties" had stolen her spatial awareness mid-flight, making every rotation a gamble with her neck and spine. Critics called it weakness. Commentators questioned her courage.

Then came Paris, 2024. Biles returned to the Olympic floor at thirty-two years old and won three gold medals and a silver. She didn't come back to silence the critics. She came back because she was finally free — free from the crushing belief that her worth depended on performing for everyone else.

Paul wrote to the Galatians, "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." That yoke isn't always sin in the obvious sense. Sometimes it's the desperate need to prove ourselves, to earn love through performance, to believe that if we stop producing, we stop mattering.

The Almighty doesn't stand at the end of a runway with a scorecard. He stands with open arms. Your freedom was purchased not so you could perform better, but so you could finally stop performing altogether.