Part One: Three Lies About the Unknown (+New Series)

When it snowed for the second time this year, we watched Frozen II. The music in this movie is so good! I wrote a blog post on the songs “The Next Right Thing” a few months after its release. I have always loved Elsa’s songs in these movies, though. The emotion and tone in both of them is so pleasing and thought provoking. 

After this most recent watch party, I am finally ready to write a blog post on one of her songs. First, I will start with her first song “Into the Unknown.” Note - because of copyright rules I can’t paste all the lyrics here, but you can look them up for yourself.

I have had this song on repeat and looked at each part of the song lyrical structure. Today, we are going two cover the first stanzas, up until the first chorus. 

In the next part of this article, I am going to breakdown each line in my own words, related to our walk with Christ. From the Bible, we know that God is calling us to greater things everyday. We see this play out with every character in the Bible. 

As humans we are often scared of the unknown. Even if we know God is calling us, we often display some of the responses that are reflected in this song. Here are the first three ways Elsa responds to the call to the unknown. 

(This is series so the other parts will be released over the next few weeks.)

1. “I can hear you but I am not the type of person for this adventure.” 

Elsa’s first response it to block it out and become defensive. She looks for loopholes. She is not the type of girl for this adventure. 

For a lot of us, when we are called on an adventure, we just shake our heads and laugh. We understand what He is saying, but He must have called the wrong person. This is the exact same response as Sarah. 

    “”Where is Sarah?” They asked him [Abraham].

    “There, in the tent,” he said.

    Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” 

    Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself and thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have the pleasure?” 

    Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I surely have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” — Genesis 18:8-14

When God calls us to adventure one of our reposes tends to be “Yeah, that sounds nice, but you must have the wrong person. I have other things to do in the here and now.” 

Even through the Bible we witness that all things are possible for God, Sarah had a child, we still hold onto the lie that we aren’t the right person for this. But we know that the Bible says: 

“And we know that in all things God, works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose.” — Romans 8:28

If that is true, which we know it is, God will call us to adventure and we should respond with trust in Him and His power, not by sneaking out the back door.

2. “You don’t actually want me. You aren’t calling me for this.” 

Instantly, the person I think of under this lie is Moses. His response is almost comical, but painfully relatable at the same time. 

    “But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 

    And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” — Exodus 3:11-12

In this dialogue, we see God turn Moses’ doubt on its head.  

Sometimes we believe we can’t do it. “Do you see what I have done? I have messed up so much before.” God says “I am with you.” He is pointing out that we are not doing this in our own strength, we are doing this in his. 

So yes, on our own we are not qualified but in Christ the Bible says we are a new creation (see 2 Corinthians 5:17). God does want us and has great plans for us, if only we will follow him into the unknown, and trust that he does want us. 

3. “I don’t hear you. You aren’t calling me.”

This one really ties into the first one so much, but as I was thinking about this one a story jumped out at me. Jonah and the big fish. 

    “The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Ninevah and preach against it, because it’s wickedness has come up before me.” 

    But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.” — Jonah 1:1-2a

Jonah plugs his ears and turns away from God. He jumps on a boat, really thinking that God will not see him. He is living in denial, which is a very dangerous place to be. If you are blocking out reality, you are actually crippling yourself with lies. You are no longer living up to your full God given potential. 

We can choice not to listen to God, but that will have sever consequences for us. Disobedience always brings consequences. The Bible says: 

“And the heavens proclaim his 

righteousness, 

for he is a God of justice.”— Psalm 50:6

If we choose to ignore him, justice will happen in the form of consequences. Sometimes that is the thing we need to get back on track with God’s plan and agree to follow him into the unknown. 

This is what happens to Jonah. Being swallowed by the fish he was saved and agreed to go into the unknown with his God. 

That concluded our first post in these series. Next time we will look at the next three lines of the song and finishing up the lies Elsa tells herself about the unknown. (If you would like to be notified when that is posted you can subscribe to get notifications here.)

Unit the next post, spend some time reflecting. Is there an unknown God is calling you into? Have any of these lies held you captive?