The Frozen Gospel

Spoiler Alert!  

(Just kidding, I know I was the last one on the planet to see the movie, so there's no one left to be spoiled.)

To Angie's delight, Frozen finally came in the mail from Netflix. Don't worry, we didn't deprive her of the most popular thing since the Rainbow Loom for six whole months, she'd already seen it twice. I, on the other hand, had only heard some mediocre reviews from parents driven mad by the wild obsession over some ice princess, and of course I'd been subjected to countless parodies of the soundtrack on Facebook.

From the opening scene, I found the animation lacking compared to Pixar's beauties and even some of Disney's others such as Tangled, I was underwhelmed by the jokes, annoyed by the songs, and finding the whole storyline predictable. As I really listened to the most memorized and belted out song by kids in years, "Let it Go," I started to worry about the message mistakenly taken to heart by zillions of children: 

 It’s time to see what I can do
To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me

Yes, those are exactly the words every parent wants stuck in their child's head!

 

Am I the only one who anticipated this lineup of couples for the finale?

But then Olaf appeared and the humor level rose a few notches. The love story I assumed would play out, did not come to the happily ever after double wedding end I'd naively predicted. And then I started to see Jesus all over the place...

The parenting book Give Them Grace has a thought-provoking chapter about pop culture and how to raise your little ones in this big scary world without confining them to a bubble or at the other extreme exposing them entirely to the unfiltered trash that pervades our media today. I love that instead of burning the books, movies, and music your kids friends will surely be talking about, they recommend you start looking with your kids for the one Good Story. 

"We want our children to know and believe the one good story. Every other story is a copy or a shadow of this... We want our kids to know the one good story so well that when they see secular characters they can recognize the strands of truth and deception in them. We want them to be able to recognize the great themes of the gospel: sacrificial love, the laying down of our life for our enemies... We want them to identify forgiveness, justice, redemption, and the fight against evil..."

I'm a total sucker for this. I saw Christ in almost every selfless loving move of Peeta from the Hunger Games as well as Harry Potter. And then I was suddenly so sure Olaf was going to be the next Jesus figure, sitting by the fireplace when he explained love as putting someone else's needs before your own. When he said "Some people are worth melting for," I had to wipe away some tears before Angie caught me sniffling. But again I misjudged Disney, Olaf did not give his life as the true love act Anna needed. 

I was so pleasantly surprised by the twist when Anna herself performed the act she was waiting for, the final of many Gospel themes throughout the movie.

You see, the Bible story was first hinted at when Elsa sang the chorus, "Be the good girl you've always had to be." And then it was played out as she realized she could not live up to the rules that had confined her for so long. In a classic Old Testament storyline, her character lived riddled with fear and guilt as she tried to live up to the impossible standards of the Law, until she finally came to understand just how futile that is. 

The turning point/hit song, "Let it Go" was Elsa's chorus of freedom from the chains of obedience that enslaved her. She let her hair down and took off the gloves in a symbolic gesture of leaving the Law behind. Unfortunately, she recognized the Old Covenant was more than she could fulfill before she learned the good news. So, she was left to wander alone in the wilderness for some time before the one who had been pursuing her with unrequited, unconditional love all along, her sister Anna, made the ultimate sacrifice for her. Finally, the true love act of one for another set Elsa free, free to live in the New Covenant of grace and love.

Anna's sacrifice for one who had done nothing but hurt her for as long as she could remember was further allegory that forgiveness heals the heart of the forgiver as much as the forgiven. And we mustn't forget the trolls' insightful number Fixer Upper, full of the lyrics our kids should be memorizing; detailing how everyone needs community, that none of us is really any better than anyone else, and that it's loving each other that polishes our imperfect edges.

Thank you Disney, for giving us a movie our kids want to watch ad nauseam, that we parents can use for some teachable moments, and be reminded of a few important lessons ourselves. Now, if you could just clarify to the children that they don't need to test our limits and scream "No right, no wrong, no rules for me," in order to be set free, they just have to know the love of their Savior...

"But now that we’re no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, we’re free to live a new life in the freedom of God." -Romans 7:6 TM

What if?

I know a LOT of really cool Jesus followers. 

I know Patty Laurence, a stay at home mom, who probably hasn't stayed at home a day in the past year as she's served Louisville's homeless more than just food, but hope. She loves them with Christ's love when she sees them as victims of their circumstances. And she loves them with the same love when she learns their stories and finds they're victims of mostly just their own bad choices.

I know Lauren Blair who quit her job to run the board of a non-profit in Kenya serving children with disabilities and to write a beautiful book about the Christ followers who love these kids who are thought to be cursed. Kupenda means love in Swahili, and Kupenda teaches love to those who've written helpless little ones off as unlovable.

I know Paul and Kristin Hoffman whose hearts keep expanding as they run a baby home for sick infants in Bolivia, but can't resist adopting many of the children into their own family. Abandoned children with hearing impairment, rotten teeth, severe intestinal disease, and H.I.V. learn what unconditional love looks like, and that there is Someone who will never abandon them.

I know so many who've adopted little ones from Russia, China, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Uganda, Nepal, and Nicaragua, at great financial and emotional cost to themselves, not because their families were too small, but because they knew God's family is that big.

I serve with dozens of missionaries who have given up their normal, their homes, their safety to help people who have far less, because of Jesus' love.

I know people who live incarnationally. I have friends who put flesh on the words of the gospel and let the good news of God's love ooze out their pores...

What if these were the people who made the headlines? What if these humble quiet servants working behind the scenes to love in Jesus' name, were the ones who represented Jesus to those who don't know Him instead of the outspoken ones who make us known for judgement, intolerance, and hypocrisy?

Christians say we love the sinner and hate the sin. But has the publicity for how we feel about the sin been drowning out how we feel about the sinner? As a Church are we hating sin so loudly that no one can hear us loving? What if we were more like Patty who loves by housing the heroin addict, and finding a home for the ex-convict, without judging their sin.

Jesus was a friend of corrupt tax collectors, prostitutes, and all kinds of sinners. He was not known for hating much of anything except the self-righteousness of the Pharisees who looked down their noses at His friends. At the risk of people not knowing what we hate, I will choose to err on the side of letting them know who God loves.

"Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other." 
-Jesus, John 13:34-35 TM

What if instead of being known for what we hate, we were known for how we love?