TEXT
John 4:3-8; Luke 17:11-14; Proverbs 17:17
"You discover gradually in almost indefinable ways that it [this inner ring of inclusion and exclusion] exists and that you are outside it; and then later, perhaps, you are inside it… It is not easy, even at a given moment, to say who is inside and who is outside. Some people are obviously in and some are obviously out, but there are always several on the borderline… People think they are in after they have in fact been pushed out of it, or before they have been allowed in; this provides great amusement for those who are really inside. It has no fixed name... From outside, if you have despaired of getting into it, you call it "That gang" or "They" or "So-and-so and his set" or "The Caucus" or "The Inner Ring." … I believe that in all of our lives at certain periods and in many of our lives at all periods between infancy and extreme old age, one of the most dominant elements is the drive to be inside the local Ring and the terror of being left outside of it." –C.S. Lewis
”The desire which draws us into Inner Rings is another matter. A thing may be morally neutral and yet the desire for that thing may be dangerous. . . . Unless you take measures to prevent it, this desire is going to be one of the chief motives of your life, from the moment you enter your profession until you are too old to care. . . . If you do nothing about it, if you drift with the stream, you will in fact be an "inner ringer." I don't say you'll be a successful one; that's as may be. But whether by pining and moping outside rings that you can never enter, or by passing triumphantly further and further in—one way or the other you will be that kind of man.” –C.S. Lewis
”And you will be drawn in, if you are drawn in, not by a desire for gain or ease, but simply because at that moment, when the cup was so near your lips, you cannot bear to be thrust back again into the cold outer world. It would be so terrible to see that other man's face—that genial, confidential, delightfully sophisticated face—turn suddenly cold and contemptuous, to know that you had been tried for the Inner Ring and rejected.” –C.S. Lewis
“As long as you are governed by that desire you will never get what you want. You are trying to peel an onion; if you succeed there will be nothing left. Until you conquer the fear of being an outsider, an outsider you will remain.” –C.S. Lewis