C. S. Lewis once said, “Nearly all vices are rooted in the Future. Gratitude looks to the Past and love to the Present; fear, avarice, lust and ambition look ahead” (The Screwtape Letters, New York: Macmillan, 1951, p. 69).
The Prophet Jacob put it another way. He spoke of the necessity of understanding “things as they really are, and … things as they really will be.” He described the Jews as searching for things that they could not understand and being blinded because of “looking beyond the mark” (Jacob 4:13–14).
from F. Burton Howard, “On Giving and Getting,” New Era, Oct 1985, 44
