Frozen

If you don’t have children or don’t engage in popular culture, the film “Frozen” released last December by Disney may have passed you by. It’s about 2 sisters and the adventures they go on. We’ve been singing “Let it go” non stop for a while due to a recent production starring my lovely 3 and 6 year olds, our daughter sounds more like a pub singer but looked really cute in her costume!

It was just as lovely as a nativity scene seeing them perform last Saturday on a frosty morning, and I think there are some Christian messages hidden in the film!

Firstly I have learnt recently that if you are a leader, as Elsa is, (she’s a princess in charge of a kingdom), running off to the hills, and creating a wall of ice between you and everyone else, isn’t probably going to do much good. It might feel good to “let it go”, but there will be consequences (such as freezing the whole place). If you are born with leadership qualities, it doesn’t matter if you want to be a leader or not, no amount of sulking in your room, creating monsters to protect you, or using fear as a shield to hold people away, is going to change the fact that you are supposed to be using your gifts for the greater good!

Secondly, keeping your powers locked up, and hidden from the world isn’t a great place to start. No amount of health and safety legislation can stop you from having an impact on the world if you are destined to do so. It isn’t about being a “good girl” and “holding it in”, it’s about channeling your powers into acts of loving kindness that really make a difference. The energy you put into hiding, will ultimately keep you apart from those that love you, and hurt people closest to you.

For various reasons I’ve been thinking about Frozen and leadership alot recently and I’d like to think I’m a brave, slightly naive Anna striving to make it all work better, but I know I can also relate to Elsa, trapped in fear and isolation and scared to be herself. I certainly can blast people close to me, when I’m feeling scared and out of my depth.

We are all leaders in different ways, whether as parents, friends, mentors, colleagues or in a more formal way. The message from the Bible about being a leader is not to be controlling and to “lord it over others”, as some of the other characters in Frozen try to do. I think it can be really difficult to see or hear about positive role models of women leading, mainly as we are brought up to be modest about our achievements. Jesus’s example is as a servant king, which is incredibly challenging but also a way to lead with integrity:

Luke 22 v25 “Jesus said to them “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. ²⁶ But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. ²⁷ For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.”