A FROZEN Prescription

I'm not a doctor of any kind, but I do have a diagnosis: there is an epidemic of fear infecting the population worldwide:

• Fear that causes people to act upon terrifying assumptions, or equally causes non-action out of concern for retribution. 
• Fear of the unknown, or anything different that causes hate speech, hypocrisy and doubt. 
• Fear that hinders real communication, harms relationships and prevents Truth from being heard.

And though this may sound over simplistic, I believe the newest Disney Movie, Frozen, reveals the answer. The prescription, if you will, to eradicate this fear epidemic: Love.

Now of course, Disney is hardly the first one to proclaim this truth. But more on that later. For now, I'd like to examine how beautifully this movie demonstrates that Love can cure fear.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

If you have not seen the movie and plan to, be aware that if you read on a major plot line will be revealed!!  I will be careful not to reveal too much, so it will still be fun and surprising to see the movie if you choose to read on. But know that some of the surprises are discussed below.

I'm about to walk you through a brief summary of the movie along with my observations:

In the movie, Princess Elsa accidentally hurts her sister, Princess Anna, with her icy magic while playing together in the snow she created. The only way to heal her was for the trolls to take away the memory of the magic. The parents' solution? Conceal, control and contain it. So they shut the gates to the kingdom, separated the sisters and tried to teach Elsa to conceal, control and contain her magic. Here little sister Anna, never knew why her sister "shut her out." Only that she wanted to play and Elsa never came out of her room again. Then several years later, their parents died at sea and the sisters were left alone. Still, Elsa never emerged, out of FEAR of hurting her sister again. So they drifted apart as they grew up. 

Three years later, it was Coronation Day. Elsa was to be crowned Queen of Arrendale and for the first time in forever (wink wink!), the gates would be opened and the kingdom allowed in. Not only that... Anna would see her sister again.

When the sisters are finally together again at the ball, Anna is awkward. She doesn't know how to talk to her sister or even approach her. Elsa tries to make conversation, and the girls start laughing and enjoying themselves, but when Anna comments that she wishes it could always be like that, the memories start flowing and Elsa remembers the FEAR, then she shuts down and runs away.

Anna decides to go after her, and a wonderfully fun and musical adventure begins. When Anna finds her, however, out of fear of hurting Anna again, Elsa loses control and hits Anna with another icy blast, this time deadly. The cure? An act of true love.

Here's where it gets interesting. Without revealing too much more of the movie, in the end, Anna has a choice to make. Get her cure or save her sister. She chooses her sister.

Did you hear that? She chooses to save her sister instead of saving herself!! 

WHO DOES THAT?!

Oh yeah. JESUS DID. 

So now Elsa stands in shock of what her sister just did, and hugs her, then Anna's icy cast begins to melt away. Elsa asks her, why did you do that? And Anna simply replies:

"Because I love you."

To which Elsa replies, suddenly understanding:

"Love? Of course! Love can thaw a frozen heart!"

So simple yet quite profound. You see, Elsa would uncontrollably create this snow storm when she was afraid. And she did not know how to unfreeze it, leaving the whole town in danger. Until she realizes that "Love can thaw a frozen heart." Then suddenly, she magically begins to thaw the entire kingdom. Why? Because Love not only cured Anna's frozen heart, it also CURED THE FEAR INSIDE OF ELSA.

Now of course, Disney is hardly the first one to proclaim this truth. The Bible actually states it quite clearly: 

1 John 4:18

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

And this truth is declared astoundingly clear in Disney's Frozen.

So my prescription to the world: Watch Frozen!! And let the truth that LOVE DRIVES OUT FEAR sink in!! 

I wish it were possible for everyone to watch this movie, but I know it is not. So I just hope this little synopsis helps spread the message even if in some little way. Also, it is so wonderful to find such a high quality family movie with such a beautiful message to enjoy with the kids. Let's encourage them to make more like this!!  Movies are powerful!

I'm not even kidding... I literally felt fear melting off my heart as I watch this movie. So much so that I had to return from a writing hiatus to share about it. I haven't written any posts in quite a while for a variety of reasons. I will confess, however, that one reason is because of fear. Fear of rejection that what I have to say won't matter to anyone, or worse, that it would be criticized. However, over the past several weeks God has been revealing to me exactly what his Peace that Surpasses Understanding entails. As silly as it sounds, He used Frozen to drive some of that message home to me during this time! I am so excited by what I am learning that I can't hold it back anymore (another song wink!) and let fear win. Hopefully this will be a step towards consistency in writing again because I love it. If nothing else, it's therapy for me ;)  But I do hope you enjoy it and glean something from it as well.

Like always, feel free to ask questions or make comments below!! I enjoy the interaction!! In the mean time, check out just what Jesus did:

    

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.    1 John 4:10-11