I went to a Jesuit college, so part of the core requirements was taking philosophy and theology classes to the 400 level. The 300 philosophy requirement was some sort of ethics class, mine happened to be cross listed with a Women’s Studies class. For one part of the class, the topic was on eating disorders. The professor showed us how we have a “binge/purge culture.” In other words, on the one hand, we are told to work ourselves to death, eat only healthy food and work out, keep your house/self organized etc. etc. to the point of extreme but then on the other hand we are told, “it’s the weekend you should go crazy,” “you deserve to let it go,” “no one can be perfect all the time, let loose.” I’ve thought about our “binge/purge culture” many times since then and how harmful it is on us. Christianity has even let itself be influenced by this way of thinking. There are many people, Christians included, who think Christianity is just a set of laws and being a “good Christian” means controlling, concealing and even repressing our desires.
When I first saw Frozen several years ago, I couldn’t stop thinking about it after it ended. The characters in Frozen give us a great example of how we can get out of this “binge/purge” way of living. I believe they actually reveal the Christian alternative way of living. Elsa, the main character, has a great power over ice and winter, however, she lives in fear of what this power can do. She tries to deny the power, restraining it as much as she can and hiding it. Until one day, she can no longer control it. Cue the hit song, “Let it Go.” She, as the song suggests, lets it all go and goes crazy with her powers, creating for herself a beautiful, sparkly ice prison, ahem, I mean palace. Now here is where the movie could have ended, after all, here is where many of us stop. We celebrate when we finally are “free” of all restraints, free to use all our ‘powers’ to excess- these are the moments we imagine we are aiming for. We work, work, work so we can party on the weekend; or we diet, diet, diet so we can not feel so guilty about that extra chocolate. Sex, food, alcohol, money, work, entertainment…so many areas of our life are lived this way! Some have heard the mistaken belief that Christians should remain on the restraint side of life, that being a good Christian means following a set of rules.
Thankfully, the movie doesn’t end here. Even while Elsa claims she is happy and finally free, there is still something wrong- her “freedom” is only possible when everyone else is at a distance. “A kingdom of isolation, and it looks like I’m the queen,” she sings as she creates the literal and metaphorical walls around herself. So, if constantly denying and repressing our desires is not healthy, but completely binging on our desires with no care or concern is not actually living in freedom; what’s the alternative? Along comes Elsa’s sister Anna to show us. Anna, even after repeated rejection, has been faithful to her sister their whole life. When she first finds Elsa in her ice palace, she begs her, “you don’t have to live in fear…I will be right here.” Even though in her lowest moment she claims she doesn’t even know what love is, her actions speak differently. In the climax of the movie, Anna is seconds away from being frozen to death, but she believes all she has to do is kiss her true love and she will be saved. As she is heading towards her true love, she sees the bad guy about to kill her sister with a sword, with her last seconds of life she changes course away from her true love and in front of the sword, sacrificing herself for love of her sister. 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear.” Elsa, lived her whole life up to this moment in fear, even after she thought she freed herself, she lived in fear that others would come too close. Anna’s act of true love (as Olaf defines it, “true love is putting someone else before yourself) drove out Elsa’s fear. When she saw that someone loved her, she was able to celebrate her powers, use them for good, and use them within the context of love- neither restraining them nor using them to excess. Let’s celebrate and be joyful in true freedom this season. Let’s live in the confidence that we are loved!