Will the new millennium bring great change?

No, a new date does not change human beings. What we do today carries on, and only a change within people can change the direction.

Many people attach great hopes or great fears to the turn of a millennium. Yet a new year on the calendar is not a line at which human beings renew themselves automatically. The day after, the world moves in the same direction as the day before.

What we do today is carried into the next century with the same effects. If humanity is following a dangerous course, a date will not stop it. If anything, it will speed up. So there is nothing to celebrate in such a date as such. To be honest, we must fear that even uglier conditions will come if nothing changes.

Some say that in reality there is only the present. It is closer to the truth to put it the other way round. Everything we do in a moment immediately becomes the past, and at the same time it leaves traces in the future. The present moment is never on its own. It is the bridge across which our actions shape what is to come.

This is exactly where hope lies. The first verse above says that God does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in their hearts. The second reminds us that a person receives what he strives for. The third shows that even heavy consequences have a purpose, which is to turn people back.

So there are windows of hope. They do not open with the calendar, however. They open when people begin to think and act differently.