It starts out when we are young; our desire to fit in, to belong, to be accepted. I see it in my kids, or should I say I recognize it in my kids, for I have first seen it in myself. The truth is that even as we grow into adulthood, we still desire it. Maybe the inner ring is being in management at work. Maybe it’s a desire to fit in with a certain crowd at a social club or church. God created us with a desire to belong; primarily this is realized through connecting and belonging to “Our Father in Heaven.” And it is also legitimate to want to belong to the “Inner Circle”. It’s not the inner circle that inherently evil, it’s our wiliness not fully be ourselves in order to belong. Years ago C.S. Lewis delivered a lecture entitled, “The Inner Ring“, which he gave at King’s College, at the University of London, in 1944. In it he warns of the dangers of desiring to fit it. I encourage you to read the entire speech at the link above, but I have posted below the parts of the Inner Circle that really spoke to me.
That is my first reason. Of all the passions, the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things.
My second reason is this. The torture allotted to the Danaids in the classical underworld, that of attempting to fill sieves with water, is the symbol not of one vice, but of all vices. It is the very mark of a perverse desire that it seeks what is not to be had. The desire to be inside the invisible line illustrates this rule. 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.
This is surely very clear when you come to think of it. If you want to be made free of a certain circle for some wholesome reason—if, say, you want to join a musical society because you really like music—then there is a possibility of satisfaction. You may find yourself playing in a quartet and you may enjoy it. But if all you want is to be in the know, your pleasure will be short lived. The circle cannot have from within the charm it had from outside. By the very act of admitting you it has lost its magic.
Once the first novelty is worn off, the members of this circle will be no more interesting than your old friends. Why should they be? You were not looking for virtue or kindness or loyalty or humor or learning or wit or any of the things that can really be enjoyed. You merely wanted to be “in.” And that is a pleasure that cannot last. As soon as your new associates have been staled to you by custom, you will be looking for another Ring. The rainbow’s end will still be ahead of you. The old ring will now be only the drab background for your endeavor to enter the new one.
And you will always find them hard to enter, for a reason you very well know. You yourself, once you are in, want to make it hard for the next entrant, just as those who are already in made it hard for you. Naturally. In any wholesome group of people which holds together for a good purpose, the exclusions are in a sense accidental. Three or four people who are together for the sake of some piece of work exclude others because there is work only for so many or because the others can’t in fact do it. Your little musical group limits its numbers because the rooms they meet in are only so big. But your genuine Inner Ring exists for exclusion. There’d be no fun if there were no outsiders. The invisible line would have no meaning unless most people were on the wrong side of it. Exclusion is no accident; it is the essence.
The quest of the Inner Ring will break your hearts unless you break it. But if you break it, a surprising result will follow. If in your working hours you make the work your end, you will presently find yourself all unawares inside the only circle in your profession that really matters. You will be one of the sound craftsmen, and other sound craftsmen will know it. This group of craftsmen will by no means coincide with the Inner Ring or the Important People or the People in the Know. It will not shape that professional policy or work up that professional influence which fights for the profession as a whole against the public: nor will it lead to those periodic scandals and crises which the Inner Ring produces. But it will do those things which that profession exists to do and will in the long run be responsible for all the respect which that profession in fact enjoys and which the speeches and advertisements cannot maintain.
And if in your spare time you consort simply with the people you like, you will again find that you have come unawares to a real inside: that you are indeed snug and safe at the centre of something which, seen from without, would look exactly like an Inner Ring. But the difference is that the secrecy is accidental, and its exclusiveness a by-product, and no one was led thither by the lure of the esoteric: for it is only four or five people who like one another meeting to do things that they like. This is friendship. Aristotle placed it among the virtues. It causes perhaps half of all the happiness in the world, and no Inner Ring can ever have it.
Five years ago I sensed a call to leave our church of 12 years and relocated to Petal to be a part of the life and ministry of Turning Pointe Church. During this time our kids have grown physically and we all have grown spiritually and emotional. The people of Turning Pointe have taken us in, cared for us, and taught us how to love and serve more fully. 
Last week I was on a conference call at work, using my personal cell phone, when someone I know very well called on the other line. Now I was preparing to speak to 50 people or more on this call, so I let the call transfer to voice mail. After the call I went to listen to the message, not knowing I was in for a treat
Facebook is a great tool for connecting with old friends and being available to be contacted by people who otherwise would not be able to find you. Since cell phones have taken over, many people no longer have their name listed in the phone book and since cell numbers aren’t always easy to find, Facebook has become the new phone book. But as with any new technology there is a down side. Facebook allows people to communicate with others without being detected, or so it seems. I continue to hear and read reports of marriages that are being affected by this. The husband or wife finds a old flame or an attractive acquaintance and decides to start direct messaging them just to say “Hi”. In hopes they may say “Hi” back. This eventual grows into an emotional bond which is always step one away from their current spouse and family.
I got impulsive one night and decided to put up a tent for the kids in the living room. I purchased the tent over 2 years ago and had never gotten it out of the bag. I forgot that it said 8-10 person on the side! Before I knew it I had to open the doors in order to put the poles in. It almost whipped me, but this old 
What many of us consider as gratitude in our hearts is only sentiment. Gratitude must be verbalized for it to become Thankfulness. Telling God and others how grateful we are to them moves our gratitude from a potential into the domain of reality. No one benefits if they remain only thoughts. We must speak our gratitudes out loud and observe there power. Most of us, including myself, consider ourselves grateful people, but that mostly consists of grateful thoughts and feelings we possess. This Thanksgiving let’s not keep them to ourselves, but confess them verbally those we love.
I know 100 friends on 
The truth is that only God can do that. While we are commanded to forgive those who have sinned against us (Matt 6:12), we are never commanded to forget. Only God can choose to never remember. To the Israelites God said,
trenidydavis.com 