You've lived a lonely life.
You've been hurt.
You've been misunderstood.
You've taught yourself to conceal.
You've lost dear ones and are not sure who to trust.
You are afraid.
You are running.
You're divided in your mind because your power is raw and wild and untamed. Part of you loves this gift and can't understand why people don't seem to see the beauty of it. The other part of you is afraid because you've hurt people with it in the past, and they give you distance.
So you've built an ice palace around yourself in attempt to break free from everything. You've shut the gates and vowed, "They'll never see me cry."
Yet you pace the floor with your hands to your temples while fears chase themselves around in your mind. Frost hangs like a mist around you in your haze of confusion.
When I knock at the gates you meet me, but you hold me at arm's length and pretend that everything is fine before sending me away.
Or you will talk---but you won't listen to what I can tell you.
You won't let me help you.
Maybe you think I don't understand, but I do.
Maybe you suppose that I don't care, but you know I do.
Maybe you don't want to hear the truth.
The truth can hurt at first, but the Truth will set you free.
Truth burns away dross, but it refines the gold.
I want to tell you the truth because I want you to be free!
I want to tell you the truth because I want you to get rid of the dross that is freezing your heart and poisoning your power.
I want to tell you the truth because I see the gold in you. I see the magnificent potential in you, and it thrills me to think of all that you are capable of.
Because I believe in you.
But if you will not listen, what can I do?
You don't have to learn from me. Learn from Elsa.
Elsa thought all along that to control her power meant to stop it from happening, even though the Trolls told her that her power would only grow.
When he said she must learn to control it, he meant bring it under control. Not hide it. Not to be afraid of it. Not to be ashamed of it.
She misunderstood. Her power was something she was born with. Perhaps there was magic in her ancestry. It was a gift; but somewhere along the line she began thinking of it as a curse. When her parents, the only ones who knew her secret, were taken from her she felt that she must carry the secret alone...as a monarch! A heavy and daunting task.
Of course her secret was discovered. Was it her sister's fault for losing her temper in public and shouting out insults at Elsa in her frustration and hurt? Was it Elsa's fault for not getting out of the situation fast enough, rising to the bait, and losing her self-control? To even ask whose fault it is misses the point.
A more important thing to point out---in all stories, including the stories we are writing by our lives every day---is that in the end, it doesn't matter who has the most blame. The truth is we are all to blame. No amount of argument or excusing can ever purge us of the percentage of fault that each of us contribute to problems. There are consequences for every action we take. Even just 1% of contributing blame still carries its consequences and its ripple effect on everything else. To quarrel about who has the most blame is pointless and childish, like all the characters from "Into The Woods," rounding on each other and pointing fingers and screeching, "See, it's YOUR fault!!"
That doesn't make the problems go away. It doesn't solve anything. In fact it makes things worse.
The only acceptable thing we can do in this life when we make rotten choices is to face up to them, take responsibility for them, and then do our best to make them right.
Once her secret is out, Elsa runs. Her nerves, strained for so long, finally snap. She doesn't want to fight, so she chooses flight. From everyone she loves, away from all counsel, and away from her responsibilities.
Just like me once.
Exactly like me.
I saw my face in her every expression.
Finally she reflects. She sees no other option for herself. But then, she had no one with her to consult or to reassure her or offer help. She'd run away from everything.
When I watched this scene the first time in the theater, emotions welled up in my heart and a lump came to my throat. I braced myself, for I was certain she would turn vengeful and wicked.
But no...
In the shock of sudden freedom, Elsa lets herself use her gift. She creates swirling patterns of snow and builds ice into intricate, delicate designs. She even sparks personality into a snowman that she builds, infusing within him a remembered friend from childhood. She lets herself be who she is, and she loves it. For once she lets herself enjoy the beauty of her gift, and she casts off the bondage of some of the lies she's always believed.
In the theater when the score melted into a major key, tears began pouring down my face. That may have been the first time a movie ever moved me to actual weeping.
She makes a vow never to go back, dismissing her responsibilities as ruler of Arendelle along with the bondage of her wrong thinking. So she builds an ice castle around herself and closes the gates.
Her sister finds her and apologizes for her side of the fault. She reminds Elsa of her responsibilities, promises to help her figure out a solution, reassuring her of her love for her and pleading with Elsa to let her be part of her life again.
Elsa is convinced that this is her fate and is scared that she will only make things worse if she goes back. She's afraid that she'll hurt her sister again, and part of her---the part of her that's used to taking all the blame for things---feels that the right thing to do is send Anna away and to abandon her kingdom. It's an understandable conclusion, and certainly is pitiable...but that doesn't make it right. Flawed thinking can seem glamorous for a while, but it's still faulty and treacherous, and it always leads to more wrong choices. She refuses to try to make things right. She discourteously throws her sister out, shoving onto her shoulders the entire responsibility.
Eventually the real world catches up to Elsa and drags her back by main force to take responsibility for her actions. Having dismissed and distanced herself (literally) from those that love her, she's taken advantage of and almost killed by a wicked man. Only an act of true love and sacrifice made on her behalf saves her.
Love saved her.
Love lifts the winter, the confusion, and the lies.
Love casts out her fear.
Love transformed her raw power into beautiful strength.
And once she righted her mistakes and used her love and her power to bless her people, everyone loved her for who she was, not some idea of a perfect monarch.
My dear Elsa, you're still running. You're trying to live in a reality of your own. You're finding that's a lonely place to be. That's because your personal world is governed by rules that don't work in the world that we all live in. I know you like it in there. You find an illusion of safety and peace in it. But that world, by its very nature, is one that none of us can share with you. You can live in it for a while, but it's a lonely place. You can't have it both ways. I know. Because I once did the same thing.
I once thought that if I could only shut my eyes to my responsibilities and from the world that hurt me and the consequences of my actions that I would be able to heal myself and be happy. It didn't work. Trying to feed off my own personality was maddening, because I couldn't manufacture joy. I couldn't love myself enough to satisfy my heart's desire. I thirsted for beauty and for fulfillment, for safety and for adventure, for control and for resting in someone else's strength. I hungered for joy and the overwhelming lust to be right. I wanted to be a one-man army, rebellious against authority and free to make selfish decisions, and yet I also wanted to be loved by everyone and sympathized with. My desires chased themselves around in my head and played upon my fears and my wounds. It was horrible. There were times when I thought I would go crazy. Sometimes in the despair of my conflicting desires I gazed into my soul and found in it only unanswerable riddles, pain, conflicting desires, everything steeped in sin, and a chained beast, frothing and raging and straining at her chains. I was idolizing myself, and that idol could not satisfy. The more I gave to her, the more she desired. I raged against my Maker in my misery. I tried to blame anyone and anything else. The very sound of the Word of God being read stirred hatred in me...I shut everyone out and suffered, imprisoning myself in my own mind. It was hell. I was exactly like Gollum. There were times when the desire to end my life tantalized me with an evil fascination.
I think sometimes you perceive me as a nice, sweet little woman who lives a charmed life or something. Perhaps you think I'm a hypocrite, or that I want to control you.
No.
I don't want to control you. I don't want to cram you into some mold that whittles down your personality until there's nothing left. I've actually been down that road myself, and believe me I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
I hope and pray that one day you will find that once you surrender your dross to your Lord's furnace, He will bring you out of it more yourself than you ever were before.
Oh, my dear girl...running from everything, locking yourself in a tower with no stairs!
Oh, my sweet friend---screaming out your pain, but refusing to be healed.
I can't save you. I can't heal you. I can't make the problems or the grief or the loneliness go away. Only One can do that.
Sometimes I think we forget that our desires and wounds and pain are meant to drive us to Him. I think we forget that most of what we truly desire is not wrong...the irony is that so much of what we truly desire: fulfilling love, resting in someone's strength, adventure, safety, (yes, both of them at once) meaning, hope...they can only be found in their fullness in Jesus Christ.
When I thirsted for beauty, I shut out the Author of beauty. When I cried out for Love, I slammed the door in the face of the One who gave His life to redeem me. When I cried alone because no one listened to me or sought me out, I turned away from Him who was right there with me and who was already listening. When I longed for meaning and for adventure, I ignored the Great Author who writes all stories and who is Himself Love and Light and Strength.
Go to Him. He'll never cast out the one who comes to Him for mercy. I know...you're afraid that He'll shame you or hold you at arm's length or send you out to work off your debt. But that's not the God of the Bible, is it? He is God, not a man. He goes against the normal human pattern because His nature is infinitely higher than that of fallen man.
He won't shame you. Jesus already bore the shame and guilt of God's righteous anger toward all of our sin.
He won't frighten you or threaten you if you cry out to Him. He already delivered all of His wrath on a willing Recipient. There isn't any left!! Jesus has already paid for everything, including our guilt and shame. Why would anyone in this world suffer in sin and guilt when they could be free?
He is the Father from whom every family on earth receives its name. He is a Father to the fatherless. He is the Healer. The Word says He brings healing to His children, and satisfies their souls with good. That means fulfillment, joy, and love.
My dear girl, I love you more than you probably know. I will never, ever shut you out. You can shut me out if you like, but my door latch will always open to you. Good can wear a wry face, Truth can hurt, and Love must be tough. But that's because I love you too much to leave you in lies when I know the truth. As one beggar to another, I know where the Bread of Life is. I know where the Living Water is. And we don't have to just come once and then leave. He invites us to feast every day on His kindness.
So come. Be truly freed. The Truth will set you free.
Love Always,
~Cadenza
You've been hurt.
You've been misunderstood.
You've taught yourself to conceal.
You've lost dear ones and are not sure who to trust.
You are afraid.
You are running.
You're divided in your mind because your power is raw and wild and untamed. Part of you loves this gift and can't understand why people don't seem to see the beauty of it. The other part of you is afraid because you've hurt people with it in the past, and they give you distance.
So you've built an ice palace around yourself in attempt to break free from everything. You've shut the gates and vowed, "They'll never see me cry."
Yet you pace the floor with your hands to your temples while fears chase themselves around in your mind. Frost hangs like a mist around you in your haze of confusion.
When I knock at the gates you meet me, but you hold me at arm's length and pretend that everything is fine before sending me away.
Or you will talk---but you won't listen to what I can tell you.
You won't let me help you.
Maybe you think I don't understand, but I do.
Maybe you suppose that I don't care, but you know I do.
Maybe you don't want to hear the truth.
The truth can hurt at first, but the Truth will set you free.
Truth burns away dross, but it refines the gold.
I want to tell you the truth because I want you to be free!
I want to tell you the truth because I want you to get rid of the dross that is freezing your heart and poisoning your power.
I want to tell you the truth because I see the gold in you. I see the magnificent potential in you, and it thrills me to think of all that you are capable of.
Because I believe in you.
But if you will not listen, what can I do?
You don't have to learn from me. Learn from Elsa.
Elsa thought all along that to control her power meant to stop it from happening, even though the Trolls told her that her power would only grow.
When he said she must learn to control it, he meant bring it under control. Not hide it. Not to be afraid of it. Not to be ashamed of it.
She misunderstood. Her power was something she was born with. Perhaps there was magic in her ancestry. It was a gift; but somewhere along the line she began thinking of it as a curse. When her parents, the only ones who knew her secret, were taken from her she felt that she must carry the secret alone...as a monarch! A heavy and daunting task.
Of course her secret was discovered. Was it her sister's fault for losing her temper in public and shouting out insults at Elsa in her frustration and hurt? Was it Elsa's fault for not getting out of the situation fast enough, rising to the bait, and losing her self-control? To even ask whose fault it is misses the point.
A more important thing to point out---in all stories, including the stories we are writing by our lives every day---is that in the end, it doesn't matter who has the most blame. The truth is we are all to blame. No amount of argument or excusing can ever purge us of the percentage of fault that each of us contribute to problems. There are consequences for every action we take. Even just 1% of contributing blame still carries its consequences and its ripple effect on everything else. To quarrel about who has the most blame is pointless and childish, like all the characters from "Into The Woods," rounding on each other and pointing fingers and screeching, "See, it's YOUR fault!!"
That doesn't make the problems go away. It doesn't solve anything. In fact it makes things worse.
The only acceptable thing we can do in this life when we make rotten choices is to face up to them, take responsibility for them, and then do our best to make them right.
Once her secret is out, Elsa runs. Her nerves, strained for so long, finally snap. She doesn't want to fight, so she chooses flight. From everyone she loves, away from all counsel, and away from her responsibilities.
Just like me once.
Exactly like me.
I saw my face in her every expression.
Finally she reflects. She sees no other option for herself. But then, she had no one with her to consult or to reassure her or offer help. She'd run away from everything.
When I watched this scene the first time in the theater, emotions welled up in my heart and a lump came to my throat. I braced myself, for I was certain she would turn vengeful and wicked.
But no...
In the shock of sudden freedom, Elsa lets herself use her gift. She creates swirling patterns of snow and builds ice into intricate, delicate designs. She even sparks personality into a snowman that she builds, infusing within him a remembered friend from childhood. She lets herself be who she is, and she loves it. For once she lets herself enjoy the beauty of her gift, and she casts off the bondage of some of the lies she's always believed.
In the theater when the score melted into a major key, tears began pouring down my face. That may have been the first time a movie ever moved me to actual weeping.
She makes a vow never to go back, dismissing her responsibilities as ruler of Arendelle along with the bondage of her wrong thinking. So she builds an ice castle around herself and closes the gates.
Her sister finds her and apologizes for her side of the fault. She reminds Elsa of her responsibilities, promises to help her figure out a solution, reassuring her of her love for her and pleading with Elsa to let her be part of her life again.
Elsa is convinced that this is her fate and is scared that she will only make things worse if she goes back. She's afraid that she'll hurt her sister again, and part of her---the part of her that's used to taking all the blame for things---feels that the right thing to do is send Anna away and to abandon her kingdom. It's an understandable conclusion, and certainly is pitiable...but that doesn't make it right. Flawed thinking can seem glamorous for a while, but it's still faulty and treacherous, and it always leads to more wrong choices. She refuses to try to make things right. She discourteously throws her sister out, shoving onto her shoulders the entire responsibility.
Eventually the real world catches up to Elsa and drags her back by main force to take responsibility for her actions. Having dismissed and distanced herself (literally) from those that love her, she's taken advantage of and almost killed by a wicked man. Only an act of true love and sacrifice made on her behalf saves her.
Love saved her.
Love lifts the winter, the confusion, and the lies.
Love casts out her fear.
Love transformed her raw power into beautiful strength.
And once she righted her mistakes and used her love and her power to bless her people, everyone loved her for who she was, not some idea of a perfect monarch.
My dear Elsa, you're still running. You're trying to live in a reality of your own. You're finding that's a lonely place to be. That's because your personal world is governed by rules that don't work in the world that we all live in. I know you like it in there. You find an illusion of safety and peace in it. But that world, by its very nature, is one that none of us can share with you. You can live in it for a while, but it's a lonely place. You can't have it both ways. I know. Because I once did the same thing.
I once thought that if I could only shut my eyes to my responsibilities and from the world that hurt me and the consequences of my actions that I would be able to heal myself and be happy. It didn't work. Trying to feed off my own personality was maddening, because I couldn't manufacture joy. I couldn't love myself enough to satisfy my heart's desire. I thirsted for beauty and for fulfillment, for safety and for adventure, for control and for resting in someone else's strength. I hungered for joy and the overwhelming lust to be right. I wanted to be a one-man army, rebellious against authority and free to make selfish decisions, and yet I also wanted to be loved by everyone and sympathized with. My desires chased themselves around in my head and played upon my fears and my wounds. It was horrible. There were times when I thought I would go crazy. Sometimes in the despair of my conflicting desires I gazed into my soul and found in it only unanswerable riddles, pain, conflicting desires, everything steeped in sin, and a chained beast, frothing and raging and straining at her chains. I was idolizing myself, and that idol could not satisfy. The more I gave to her, the more she desired. I raged against my Maker in my misery. I tried to blame anyone and anything else. The very sound of the Word of God being read stirred hatred in me...I shut everyone out and suffered, imprisoning myself in my own mind. It was hell. I was exactly like Gollum. There were times when the desire to end my life tantalized me with an evil fascination.
I think sometimes you perceive me as a nice, sweet little woman who lives a charmed life or something. Perhaps you think I'm a hypocrite, or that I want to control you.
No.
I don't want to control you. I don't want to cram you into some mold that whittles down your personality until there's nothing left. I've actually been down that road myself, and believe me I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
I hope and pray that one day you will find that once you surrender your dross to your Lord's furnace, He will bring you out of it more yourself than you ever were before.
Oh, my dear girl...running from everything, locking yourself in a tower with no stairs!
Oh, my sweet friend---screaming out your pain, but refusing to be healed.
I can't save you. I can't heal you. I can't make the problems or the grief or the loneliness go away. Only One can do that.
Sometimes I think we forget that our desires and wounds and pain are meant to drive us to Him. I think we forget that most of what we truly desire is not wrong...the irony is that so much of what we truly desire: fulfilling love, resting in someone's strength, adventure, safety, (yes, both of them at once) meaning, hope...they can only be found in their fullness in Jesus Christ.
When I thirsted for beauty, I shut out the Author of beauty. When I cried out for Love, I slammed the door in the face of the One who gave His life to redeem me. When I cried alone because no one listened to me or sought me out, I turned away from Him who was right there with me and who was already listening. When I longed for meaning and for adventure, I ignored the Great Author who writes all stories and who is Himself Love and Light and Strength.
Go to Him. He'll never cast out the one who comes to Him for mercy. I know...you're afraid that He'll shame you or hold you at arm's length or send you out to work off your debt. But that's not the God of the Bible, is it? He is God, not a man. He goes against the normal human pattern because His nature is infinitely higher than that of fallen man.
He won't shame you. Jesus already bore the shame and guilt of God's righteous anger toward all of our sin.
He won't frighten you or threaten you if you cry out to Him. He already delivered all of His wrath on a willing Recipient. There isn't any left!! Jesus has already paid for everything, including our guilt and shame. Why would anyone in this world suffer in sin and guilt when they could be free?
He is the Father from whom every family on earth receives its name. He is a Father to the fatherless. He is the Healer. The Word says He brings healing to His children, and satisfies their souls with good. That means fulfillment, joy, and love.
My dear girl, I love you more than you probably know. I will never, ever shut you out. You can shut me out if you like, but my door latch will always open to you. Good can wear a wry face, Truth can hurt, and Love must be tough. But that's because I love you too much to leave you in lies when I know the truth. As one beggar to another, I know where the Bread of Life is. I know where the Living Water is. And we don't have to just come once and then leave. He invites us to feast every day on His kindness.
So come. Be truly freed. The Truth will set you free.
Love Always,
~Cadenza
