@bethvogt
Sometimes we just don’t know.
That’s my takeaway from all the news swirling around Simone Biles. Sometimes we just don’t know the entire story and we need to be okay with that.
Simon Biles is an American Olympic gymnast. The GOAT — the Greatest Of All Time. People love her. Love her story. She’s a gymnastics powerhouse and when she wins, America wins.
Biles leads the U.S. women’s gymnastics team at the Tokyo Olympics. We watch her perform, imagining all the gold she’s going to haul home. And yes, we were watching her yesterday when her vault went wrong, and she withdrew from the team finals competition.
That was not the way things were supposed to go. Her story went awry. All the imagined headlines? Rewritten.
But Biles is more than headlines. Behind the news stories is a 24-year-old woman.
What happened?
We may never know the entire story — and we need to be okay with that, rather than fabricating our own stories about why Biles didn’t compete in the team finals.
Biles clarified it wasn’t a physical injury, but that she was “dealing with a few things.” Whether her reason for withdrawing was a physical injury or stress, either one is a valid reason to back out of competition. No athlete, whether they are a rookie or the GOAT, should force themselves to compete when they are mentally or physically struggling or injured.
Yes, athletes push themselves all the time, but they also need permission to decide when not to push themselves. When to say, “Enough,” without marring their reputation.
We judge athletes based on their performance all the time. The truth is, we judge one another based on our performance — or lack thereof — all the time, too.
We so easily forget that we rarely know the entire story of why someone does something. Or why someone chooses not to do something.
As an athlete, Simone Biles faces judges every time she walks on the gymnastics stage. Yes, she’s chosen that. Let’s not judge her now when she’s chosen to step away from competition. We don’t know the full story. For whatever reason she decided against competing, she made the hard right choice for herself at that moment — and she wasn’t forgetting about her team.
Choosing not to judge someone else? It’s called grace — and judging others, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, blinds us to grace. I want to be more lavish with grace, while ignoring the impulse to judge. After all, how would I want others to respond to me? With judgement … or with grace?
Others may think they know who we are. Why we act the way we do or say thing things we say. But they don’t know the entire story – the war being waged in our minds and hearts. Remembering that we just don’t know prompts grace, not judgement.
Judge Not Lest You Be Blind #Olympics #SimoneBiles Click To Tweet 'Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.' #quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer #grace #hope Click To Tweet
Comments 15
Thank you, Beth! Sadly, we live in a polarized age where everyone is judging one another on everything, it seems. Your words are a needed reminder to stop the insanity.
Author
Anne: I’m thankful to say I’ve seen mostly supportive comments across the media for Simone Biles. Not all, unfortunately. And in our normal daily life, it is too easily to live blindly, without grace. I need this reminder too.
I hadn’t even heard about what happened until I saw your post on FB. But I’m glad you addressed the issue because often times (and definitely myself included) we jump to speculation and, like you said, outright judging and it’s wrong. Only the Lord knows what is on this young woman’s heart.
So very well said, my friend. Easier said than done, but choosing to be intentionally “blind” (in a good way) to what we dont understand about others is where the seed of grace sprouts within us. We want not to be misunderstood and judged by those who don’t understand us. We can’t expect what we can’t give, right? Grace begins within, and in my experience, only by the grace of Christ, the only one who truly understands each of us and loves us without reserve or judgment, and not based on our GOAT merit (ha!) but because of amazing grace and his immense love. Thank you for being a beacon of light and grace….its our only hope!
Author
Camille: I love how you flipped “blindness” upside down and made it a good thing. Yes, we can be “blind” to what we don’t understand and allow seeds of grace to spout. And thank you for always encouraging me to remember “But God …”
Compassion’s what The Christ had asked,
but we live in the modern day,
and how can we with love be tasked
when judgment’s just a tweet away?
We crouch behind our avatars,
made in self-lust, made in pride,
and no-one can know who we are
as we shoot arrows from our hide
with tips lovingly poison-dipped
to cause a slow and lasting pain,
that confidence and joy be ripped
from target hearts, to leave remain
a memory of world with kindness
‘fore its wrack by our conceited blindness.
Author
” … when judgment’s just a tweet away …”
So well said, Andrew. And so poignant. So sad. It is all too easy to judge behind the wall of social media.
Praying for you, my friend.
“Judging others blinds us to grace.” That’s one I want to remember.
Author
Me too, Fran. Me too. I want to see through eyes of grace.
Our pastor preached on judging others last Sunday. I confess it was a convicting sermon for me because I can be quick to form a judgemental thought in my head without knowing the full story. Grace needs to be abundant in our culture, yet I feel like it’s a deficet. Thanks for your encouraging words, as always.
Author
Agreed, Lisa, there is a deficit of grace nowadays. Toward ourselves and toward others.
Brava!
Author
🙂
Wow! I needed to be reminded of this not in terms of Simone Biles but with the current vaccination vs non vax situations. Thank you for reminding me where Christ wants me to use grace.
Author
Lindalee: It’s so true — we have so many opportunities to offer grace — and be given grace.