Take The Common Rule: Habits Of Purpose For An Age Of Distraction Narrated By Justin Whitmel Earley Expressed As E-Text

This book gives a good argument for why we all HAVE habits, therefore, why its important to have GOOD ones,

The chapters roll throughdaily habits:
, Scripture before phone
. Phone off forhr/day
, One meal with others
, Kneeling prayer morning, midday, amp bedtime

Andweekly habits:
, Sabbath
. Curate media tohrs/wk
, One hour convo w a friend
, Fast from something forhours

I have started to incorporate a lot of these, and it has been both helpful and necessary to create such rhythms in my life.
Obviously thats more subjective, but I would venture to say that most of us would benefit from incorporating better habits into our lives, This book and its ideas are a good place to start, or at least a breeding ground for creating good habits of your own,

I did not think I would find potentially my read of the year in the first novel a week into, Finally, a book that practically shows what habit formations, or liturgies will you, can and should look like, Earley is a phenomenally candid writer with a unique prose archetypical of his career as, “someone who uses words to merge companies”, I found Earleys thoughts on modern secularism, addiction, and relationships with entertainment/food to be so novel and provocative, This should be on everyonesread list, reads book
looks at life
I think I needed this,
I think everyone needs this,
So yeah, that's my review, XD This is a really helpful and honest book that encourages us with a realistic, but radical, rule for life,
His rule is not a set of legalistic rules, but a set ofkeystone habits to help build a trellis that serves to enable us, by Gods grace, to live truly fulfilling lives.
This is the realists guide to living out the Ruthless Elimination Of Hurry by John Mark Comer, It is a great follow up to that book having read that two years ago, It is convicting but also offers a path forward that feels feasible, I was encouraged, not shamed, exhorted, not overwhelmed, I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking to cultivate a life of discipline and devotion, Incredibly

helpful, engaging, and honest look at the way we live our lives and tips on how to be more intentional with our time and lives.
I highly recommend The Common Rule by Justin Whitmel Earley, I just finished listening to the audiobook, and I've been putting the habits into practice as I read, His website has great information, especially for Lent, I don't generally do well just listening to nonfiction audiobooks, but this one was easy to process without reading a physical book,

This is a more accessible, modern take on the same principles in Celebration of Discipline, The author shares many personal stories but doesn't necessarily tie the habits in with the historical church or other believers' stories, This made it an easy read, which I believe is its strength, I need easy reads that encouraged me towards Godliness in the season of life I'm in now, I really appreciated that the eight habit chapters were all aboutminutes long!

Now to start Habits of the Household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms! Lots of good things to commend in this book, that I have a few qualms with as well.
I like the basic idea: adapting the concept of a common rule to build good formational spiritual habits into ones life in the contemporary world, There are some great ideas on how to limit ones use of technology and social media in helpful ways, The diagram/chart that brings everything together on one page is excellent, On the negative side, and in more than one place, the author inadvertently makes big theological mistakes, For example, the wording of one prayer falls into the Trinitarian heresy of modalism, though I feel certain that the author is not actually a modalist.
At points, the author is too selfreferential, I also think some of the material on scripture and prayer is pretty thin good ideas, but without much substance, Finally, this book is so “in the moment,” that I think it will have a short shelf life, Negatives aside, I think it is worth reading, especially for anyone wrestling with the encroachment of technology into their personal lives and families, or anyone interested in the role of habits in spiritual formation.

"As far as our habits go, the invisible reality is this: We are all living according to a specific regimen of habits, and those habits shape most of our life.
"

Since the start of this year, I've been really interested with the topic of habitsespecially because so many of us including me are living on autopilot these days.
When we live our day to day lives on autopilot, we might not realize what we spend our time on and what information we take in through all sorts of media that are surrounding us.
I love how the writer, Justin Whitmel Earley, has experienced firsthand how busyness and always striving for more caused him to have severe anxiety, In this book, Justin Whitmel Earley introduced"common rule" or habitsdaily andweekly that will help us live intentionally and minimize the distractions that keeps us away from fulfilling our purpose.
It is written in a very practical way which showed us the way to incorporate these habits into our daily lives, Even though I didn't really enjoy the writing style because I think it's too textbooklike most of the time, I'm still really eager to try and start doing some of these habits.

"I decided limits were a better way of life, and that's when everything changed, I had lived my whole life thinking that limits ruin freedom, when all along it's been the opposite: the right limits create freedom, "

"Habits are how we stand up and get our hands on time, And because time is the currency of our purpose, habits are how we get our hands on our purpose, "

In this review, I'm going to share some of the habits that I want to try out the most especially because I think these habits are what I need to start living intentionally and get out of my autopilot mode.
The first one is One Hour with Phone Off and Scripture Before Phonethey're actually two separate daily habits but I decided to combine them because they go hand in hand for me personally.
Since the Screen Time feature was available on my phone, I religiously keep track of how much time I spend with my phone, At the start, I was shocked when I found out the amount of time I spent looking at my phone, After setting some limitations, I am now down to aroundhours per dayand that's still a lot of time, The One Hour with Phone Off habit doesn't sound that difficult for me because there are a lot of time when I'm not using my phone usually when I'm with other people or reading a book.
But I think Scripture Before Phone is the challenging one for me, because right when I wake up in the morning, the first thing that I reached for is my phonesince that's where my alarm came from.
In these chapters, the writer emphasized that smartphones fracture our presence: by working while on vacation, interrupting our dinner with news notifications, posting a conflict instead of talking to someone about it, and so many more.
That's why the idea of having a time away from our phone makes us present and be available to the people who are actually with us.
Besides that, the writer also encouraged us to start the day with scripture reading the Bible before using our phones, The idea is to fill our minds with the right things first, so that the rest of our day will go accordingly, Although it might be difficult to do, I think these habits are worth trying out,

The other habit that I'm going to try doing is Curate Media to Four Hours, The habits that are most relevant to me are related to smartphone and media, because these two seems to be overtaking my life these days, I stopped watching TV a few years ago and found my entertainment through Youtube videos, Last year I realized how much time I spent watching Youtube and decided to unsubscribe to several channels, Even though I think most of the videos that I watch now are informative and useful for me, this chapter in the book reminded me that it is important to resist the constant stream of addictive media with a time limitwhich forced us to curate carefully what we watch.

"When the distractions fade away and the roar of silence begins, we're confronted with the question that haunts us: Who are we really, now that no one is looking"

"This habit of curating media intake strikes at the heart impulse of the Common Rule.
The good life doesn't come from the ability to choose anything and everything the good life comes from the ability to choose good things by setting limits.
"

Overall, I enjoyed this book quite well and the purpose behind these common rule is really interesting, It has definitely encouraged me to live more purposefully and intentionally, I especially like how the writer ended this book, which is by talking about failure and beauty, Even though Justin Whitmel Earley wrote this book, he himself also experienced some failures while trying to apply these habits to his daily life, And he reminded us that it's okay to fail, Because to be able to live with purposeful habits takes one small step at a time, I also love how at the end of this book, the writer provided some adjustments to the common rule for all kinds of people: for small groups, skeptics, parents with busy lives, for the workplace, entrepreneurs, etc.
It's a good way to motivate us so that we will not easily lose hope, because we can adjust these habits according to our needs.

"My best friend Steve and I used to talk about what it means to become great, and we thought it meant focusing on how you handle success.
Then life broke us downas it will anyone, Now we talk about how any life is characterized much more by its failures than its successes, We believe that a great life comes not by the way you avoid failure, but by the way you handle failure, "

Read the full review here:
sitelink thebookielooker. com Summary: Offers an alternative to the habits of our technological world that make us busy, distracted, anxious, and isolated by proposing a set of habits enabling us to live into loving God and neighbor, and into freedom and rest.


Justin Earley was a wellintentioned, missional Christian with ambitious goals who found himself having panic attacks and selfmedicating with pills and alcohol and other destructive habits.
A life of busyness shaped increasingly by technology was undermining his health and relationships, He recognized that he was being shaped by a set of cultural habits, ways of being that left him busy, distracted, anxious, and isolated, He saw that these habits were not only shaping his schedule they were forming his heart, Along with some friends, he identified an alternate set of daily and weekly habits that they thought were consonant with their shared faith, He began sharing these with others, and eventually, in conversation with a pastor, realized that he and his friends had rediscovered an ancient practice going back to Augustine and Benedict of living under a rule of life, hence the name they adopted, The Common Rule.


The Common Rule Consists of four daily and four weekly habits, Two of each of these focus on loving God, and two on loving neighbor, Also two of each focus on embracing the good in God's world, and two of each focus on resisting destructive cultural practices, even as we pursue a life of love.
The eight are:

Daily: 

Kneeling Prayer morning, midday, and bedtime Love God/embrace
One meal with others, Love neighbor/embrace
One hour with phone off Love neighbor/resist
Scripture before phone Love God/resist

Weekly:

One hour of conversation with a friend Love neighbor/embrace
Curate media to four hours Love neighbor/resist
Fast from something for twentyfour hours Love God/resist
Sabbath Love God/embrace

After introductory chapters explaining the rule, one chapter of the book is devoted to each habit, explaining the rationale for each habit and concluding with practical instructions for practicing the habit.
He concludes the book with the observation of art critic Michael Kimmelman that the greatest work of art is the "curating of all of life as a single witness to something grand" p.
. Earley then applies this to the work of habits in our lives, He writes:

"I believe that paying attention to the work of habit is similar, It is best thought of as giving attention to the art of habit, It isn't about trying to live right it's about curating a life, It is the art of living beautifully" p,.

The book concludes with an extremely helpful set of resources for individuals or groups Earley believes it is especially helpful to practice these disciplines with others who voluntarily enter in so that individuals can encourage each other.
The resources include the habits in a nutshell, a guide to trying one habit a week, trying the whole Common Rule for a week or a month, ways congregations can use the Common Rule, prayers for those trying the Common Rule, and ways the Common Rule might be used in different walks of life for skeptics, parents, at work, for artists and creatives, entrepreneurs, addicts, and those with mental illnesses.


It may be a small thing, but I appreciated the typography of the book, The medium blue of the cover is used for titles, subtitles, diagrams, quote grabs, and headers, setting this book off from most monochromatic texts, More substantively, the practical application of James K, A. Smith's ideas of cultural liturgies and the early fathers practice of rule of life makes for an inviting book grounded in rigorous thought and tested practice.
Couple this with his own vulnerable example, and you have a winsome exposition of the practices that makes you want to start right away, The practices of scripture before phone, shutting off the phone for at least an hour, and curating media were both challenging and helpful for this reader whose life is too dominated by the smartphone.
Whether you embrace the full rule, or substitute other practices, Earley's Common Rule offers an important alternative for people of faith to the ways our technological culture may lure us into frantic busyness, distraction, anxiety, and isolation instead of helping us curate beautiful lives of love for God and neighbor.




Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher, I was not required to write a positive review, The opinions I have expressed are my own, .