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Unfrozen

I got quite a response from my last post, so I decided to write a follow-up. If you haven't read it yet, you might want to go back and read the post "Forgiven and Free."

I was talking with a friend this past Friday during a play date and she mentioned how much she could resonate with what I wrote in my post and how hard it can be to see the good amid the bad. She was so right. It is easy for me to get caught up in how I get hurt and in the fear of being hurt, that I shut myself off from the good as well as the bad. I don't call the people that are important. I don't work to develop my good friends. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry to the good people for my inability to connect and be there for you -- for not calling, setting up times to get together, putting myself out there. I have cocooned myself from the world and I am wrong.

I have been trapped by my fear and it has kept me from love. I feel like Elsa at the end of Frozen where she learns that love can thaw a frozen heart. I think the movie should of had a reprise of "Let It Go" at the end. The original "Let It Go" is about not caring what people think and being who she truly is. But there should be a reprise when she realizes that it is actually her fear that has kept her captive -- not what people think. "Let it go, let it go. I don't have to live in fear any more. Let it go, let it go. Love can open the door..." Elsa learns at the end that "love drives out fear."

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18, NIV

Huh, who knew that a Disney movie could be biblical? ;) But, of course, the passage continues:

We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. 1 John 4:19-20, NIV

As I mentioned in my last post, I love because Christ first loved me. I love because that is what God has called me to do. I love through the help of Christ.

My friend from last Friday is one of the good ones. I'm so glad we got the chance to hang out. In fact, God has given me numerous times to love others and feel loved since writing that post. I pray that I will continue to "let it go" and learn to love.

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