The Inner Ring

“The quest of the Inner Ring will break your hearts unless you break it.” Lewis’ statement is true, not only for the inner ring, but for anything we pursue more than God. As we said in class inner rings in and of themselves may be good. However it is our motives and our hearts that make it a sinful quest. Once our pursuit of something pushes us to live for it, once it affects our decisions and judgment, it is in danger of becoming an idol (or may already be on idol). Inner rings may serve their purposes, but when our goal becomes to be inside the inner ring so that we may find our value in belonging there, the inner ring will in fact “break your heart.”

1 John 5:21 urges us to be wary of anything that takes this kind of place in our lives. “Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.” The interesting thing about many idols in our lives is that these things we pursue more than God may not be evil in themselves. But once again, it is the place we give them in our lives that turns it into idolatry. The advice in 1 John is not only to keep these things from becoming idols, but to keep away from these things altogether. If in our life constantly taunts and tempts us to put it before God, we should distance ourselves from it altogether. Lewis provides this suggestion for inner rings. He tells us to break free from our desire to be in the inner ring. Since it is a desire, and not something that can be so clearly removed as some other idols, we must discipline our minds. We must constantly “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). Above all our thoughts, our desires, and our actions should be a slave to Christ.