The Light of Conscience: How a Simple Act Can Change Your Life

AN INSPIRATIONAL MEDITATION ON THE POWER OF CONSCIENCE—HOW A SIMPLE ACT, A MOMENT OF PURPOSE, CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE, YOUR COMMUNITY, EVEN THE WORLD

We all struggle at times to know what to do to seek and abide our conscience—when right and wrong are not black and white, when heart and head speak with different voices, when our intentions and interests are not aligned. If you believe that the outcome of these struggles affects the course of your life, and the lives around you, then this book is for you.
If you believe that there are times and places when the choice an individual makes to speak or be silent, to eat or fast, to remain seated or to stand up in a crowd, to stare and remember or to walk on by and forget, can be as powerful as a president’s command, a congressional appropriation, or a military incursion, then this book is for you.

This book is for you if your profession is rewarding financially but not spiritually, or if you’re ever worried that your career and conscience conflict.

This book is for you if you are a parent whose love of your children never wavers with the anxiety they cause you but sometimes leaves you wondering whether they will grow up to do the right thing even if no one is watching.

This book is for you if you question whether the countless small decisions you make each day add up to a larger judgment about your life’s meaning.

Finally, this book is for you if you believe that quiet, often solitary acts of conscience have echoes louder than the original sound; that individual acts have the potential to trigger large public consequences and continue to inspire others from generation to generation; that such acts bring rewards to the individual, that unforeseen benefits accrue, that one gains more than was sacrificed, and that there is a transformative power and richness to a life so lived.

BILL SHORE is the founder and executive director of Share Our Strength, a national nonprofit organization that has raised more than $150 million to support anti-hunger and anti-poverty organizations worldwide. He
is the author of The Cathedral Within (available from Random House Trade Paperbacks) and Revolution of the Heart. Bill Shore can be reached at bshore@strength.org.