"I don't have to live it," someone said -- "I saw the movie!"

Remember the movie?

"2001 -- A Space Odyssey," from some 30 years ago. Good movie. Not very prophetic.

The future is hard to predict. We try to make it too exotic, when, in fact, the future always looks a lot like the past -- just more of it.

Know what I mean?

Sure, Abe Lincoln would be amazed if he were alive today -- cars, television, computers.

Listen, I'm alive today, and I'm amazed. When I started writing these little articles back in 1987, I typed them on a typewriter.

Now I don't even own a typewriter. I have this publishing machine at my finger tips. I design the printed word in just the form I want and print it out in an instant.

If I misspell something, the machine underlines it until I correct it. Amazing!

I put out an album recently -- a CD. Looks like a CD by Garth Brooks or Travis Tritt or somebody. Put it on the stereo player and there I am -- singin' my heart out! But I don't even know how a CD works!

I know how a record works. I learned that from a Walt Disney cartoon when I was a kid. But CD's are beyond me. I don't know "digital" from fiddlesticks.

I know little about computers, but I use one all the time.

All this technology is available to all of us dummies.

And yes, I'm amazed.

But you know what really amazes me? The technology doesn't really change much. It's all just more of the same.

I went shopping a couple of days before Christmas. I saw masses of people at the mall, buying the technological wonders that fill the store shelves. Does the Gospel still speak to us in this day of marvels?

The marvels can obscure the reality. Last time I checked, the death rate in the world is still 100%. Until that changes -- we need a Savior.

It's bard to keep up with the technological advances, but here is something we all must know: we are loved, we are forgiven, we are of eternal value.

It's a new year -- but the same old world.

Remember what really counts.

Be in church somewhere this Sunday.