Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - Freezing People - #8421

Thursday, December 10, 2009

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If you like movies with neat happy endings, you really wouldn’t like the second “Star Wars” movie. It ends with one of the heroes, Han Solo, being put on ice by the villain. And during the years it took to make the next movie, that’s where poor Han Solo was—just like frozen in time, just like they left him at the end of that movie.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and unfortunately, that practice is all too common in our real relationships with real people—we freeze them in time. We think we’ve got someone figured out, and we freeze them there forever. Oh, we love to deal with people by categories: Religious categories, racial categories, personality categories. We fail to see them as the unique, God-designed individuals they really are. We decide what a person is like and we freeze them there, blind to the fact that people change, especially people who belong to Jesus Christ and have the transforming power of God’s grace working on them.

Think about it, are you the same person you were five or ten years ago? Or even a year ago? How does it feel when somebody continues to act as if you’re the person you used to be? We freeze coworkers in time, our parents, our children, our spiritual leaders, even our husband or wife.

God is changing them, but we won’t let them change. We’d rather just leave them where we froze them; a sin against the work God’s trying to do in their lives. It’s time for some 1 Corinthians 13 love: “Love is patient and kind, it is not proud, it keeps no record of being wronged. Love never gives up. Love is always hopeful” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ).

This radio program references: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7