The World Inside You

Cory Booker, the Mayor of Newark NJ, has influenced a lot of positive change for his city. The city has been notorious for high crime rates and a decrepit inner-city.  As a Rhodes Scholar, Corey moved into the inner-city and lived among those who needed help most.

One of his first experiences was asking an older lady in his building if there was anything he could help her with.  Once he explained who he was and what he was trying to accomplish she walked him down several flights of stairs, out the front door of the building and right into the middle of the street.  She told him to look around and tell her what he saw.  He described to her walls, fences, traffic, people walking, graffiti, trash, and more.

The lady turned to Booker and said "Do you know what your problem is?  The world you see outside of you is the world inside of you."

Booker went on to say from that story, that we are all the light of the world but, "don't let the world dim your light."

*This story is the way I can best recall Booker telling it at the Willow Creek Association Leadership Summit.

Related articles

• Leadership Summit 2011 | Cory Booker - Stand Up (vialogue.wordpress.com)

Silence

Mama Maggie, founder of Steven's Children in Cairo shared the following about spending time in silence and the process by which it becomes beneficial.

Silence your body to listen to your words.
Silence your tongue to listen to your thoughts.
Silence your thoughts to listen to your heart.
Silence your heart to listen to your spirit.
Silence your spirit to listen to His spirit.

Humility's Impact

John Dickson, Director for the Centre for Public Christianity and senior minister for the St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Sydney Australia recently did a study on the topic of humility.  According to his teams research they concluded that the view of humility took a major turn during the first century where it began to be an admonishing trait of those who expressed it.

Dickson's simple definition of humility is "the ability to hold one's power for the good of others, not personal gain." However what stood out to me more than the definition of humility was the statement he made on the impact of humility. When those who are greater practice humility the "impact causes people who are lesser to feel that they can be equals with those who are greater."