Love is an open door… and mine are all closed.

Lately I’ve felt a lot like Princess Anna continually knocking on Elsa’s door only to be rejected time and time again.  Doors aren’t opening the way I wanted them to, and they didn’t for Anna either.  Yet Anna remains hopeful even when there is nothing but silence on the other side of the door.  Anna finds so many other ways to continue finding happiness in her lonely castle, and I think that moment is something we often overlook in Frozen. Anna is loved for her bubbly, optimistic personality but she is never taken quite as seriously as Else because Elsa’s personal issues are without a doubt a much larger issue.  However, Anna continually chooses her bright outlook despite being rejected on a daily basis by the person she loved most. That is brave.

I’ve been reading a devo called “100 Days to Brave” by Annie Downs and the section I’m in right now is all about dreams and the doors that open and close in our lives.  God is in control of these doors, and whether or not He opens opportunities or slams them shut, we still must have faith in His greater plan.  We must be brave enough to wait for the right door to open, and brave enough to walk through and deal with whatever current situation we currently find ourselves in, no matter if we face closed door, opened ones, or ones that open to the unexpected.

Frozen shows us what happens when we refuse to deal with our current situations and when we try to force closed the doors that are opened.  We self destruct.  We become a monstrous version of ourselves no longer reflecting our true natures.  We may not conjure an evil snowman like Elsa, or run away to ice castles, but we do create emotional storms that can hurt not just ourselves but entire kingdoms (sry Arendelle).  Elsa demonstrates the emotional storms we create for ourselves by refusing to face these situations head on. When we deny our feelings and current situations, or refuse to walk through whatever door we have open, we might as well become frozen. Even if we could create an amazing ice palace or talking snowmen, we can’t use them to distract ourselves from the things we need to face.

Running away doesn’t work.  Trying to force doors open or closed doesn’t work.

We must face the storm.  We must let people in. We must open the door.

The unfortunate part of this realization is that sometimes we have to walk through doors we don’t want to, or maybe sit in empty hallways full of locked doors we desperately want open.  I find myself in that hallway now, waiting and praying that if I keep knocking and keeping seeking something amazing will open.  But until then, while I sit waiting, I have a choice to respond like Anna or Elsa: with optimism and kindness, or with a cold, closed off heart.

Elsa’s journey to reopen the doors she shut is why she became such a sensation – her journey is relatable and inspiring. She shut every single door in her life until she completely isolated herself, but by facing her fears and letting people in, and dare I say it, letting go, she was able to conquer herself.  It’s so much easier to conceal and not feel, to try and force the doors we don’t want to be open closed, but life doesn’t work that way.

No matter how strong our ice powers, we can’t force any door to open or close that God wants open. We just have to be brave enough to walk through.

Elsa proves that, and Anna demonstrates that bravery constantly.  She handles life’s greatest challenges with grace and positivity. She continues to knock on every door and opportunity, ready for whatever lies behind it.

So if you find yourself surrounded by a lot of closed doors or are being forced to walk through doors you don’t understand, stay hopeful like Anna. Don’t run away despite how cool an ice palace sounds.  When all you see are closed doors, find the courage to patiently wait for something amazing to present itself.  And that is the most frustrating part – waiting.  Waiting for a door, any door, to open again. But that’s the point of these sister’s entire story: no matter what door closed, or how many, or for how long, they will open again.  All we have to do is find the grace to wait, and the strength to keep knocking.