Home > Author > Justin Whitmel Earley
41 " When we don’t curate for beauty and instead feed a desire for distraction or pick based on messages alone, we miss out on the essential human need to feel the world deeply. "
― Justin Whitmel Earley , The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction
42 " The key thing to notice here is how Jesus’ actions are the exact opposite of what humans did in the Garden of Eden. There, we tried to become gods by rejecting God’s authority and eating the forbidden fruit. In trying to free ourselves from our limitations, we brought the ultimate limitation of death into the world. But Christ turns this human paradigm on its head. The way down is the way up. The way to victory is through surrender. The way to freedom is through submission. We, for our own sake, tried to become limitless, and the world was ruined. Jesus, for our sake, became limited and the world was saved. "
43 " The rule of life is intended to pattern communal life in the direction of purpose and love instead of chaos and decay. "
44 " So every story is trying to make us feel busted up about something and makes us fall in love with a solution. The problem is when they stir up fear over the wrong things or stir up love for broken solutions. "
45 " And because time is the currency of our purpose, habits are how we get our hands on our purpose. "
46 " (Often reprogramming our phones is a way to reprogram our thought life, which goes to show how non-neutral our phones are.) "
47 " At best, I am a tired, confused, impatient, guilt-ridden, and regret-prone father whose only hope is that Jesus actually did live, die, and rise again. "
― Justin Whitmel Earley , Habits of the Household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms
48 " We can’t curate for justice when we look at stories through only our own eyes. We need the diversity of all of God’s children and the collective wisdom of many voices. "
49 " the point of limiting media is not at all to ignore the problems of the world but rather to open your eyes to enter into them. "
50 " We have a common problem. By ignoring the ways habits shape us, we’ve assimilated to a hidden rule of life: the American rule of life. This rigorous program of habits forms us in all the anxiety, depression, consumerism, injustice, and vanity that are so typical in the contemporary American life. "
51 " Let us see that habits shape the heart. Let us stop fearing that limits are a threat to our freedom. Let us see that the right limitations are the way to the good life. Let us build a trellis for love to grow on. Let us craft a common rule of life for our time, one that will unite our heads and our habits, growing us into the lovers of God and neighbor we were created to be. "
52 " As the name suggests, the Common Rule is meant to establish communal—not individual—rhythms, so ideally it’s practiced with other people. Change—even personal change—almost always happens within a community where people support each other, process what they’re learning, and keep each other accountable to goals. So I strongly encourage you to convince friends or family members to try the Common Rule out with you. "
53 " Presence is at the heart of who we are, because presence is at the core of our relationship with God. From creation to salvation, the story of the Bible is fundamentally a story of presence. Eden was Eden because the unmediated presence of God was there. God was with Adam and Eve, until sin broke the bliss of that presence. After eating the fruit, Adam and Eve suddenly wanted to cover themselves with clothes and hide. This is the hallmark of life as we know it now. We hide from each other, and we hide from God. We long for the face of God, but we can’t bear his gaze either. Sin has turned a people meant for presence into a people of absence, "
54 " Talking about Jesus while ignoring the way of Jesus has created an American Christianity that is far more American than it is Christian. "
55 " [Nothing] was as helpful as talking about failure-- because failure is where we live. Failure is not the enemy of formation; it is the liturgy of formation. How we deal with failure says volumes about who we really believe we are. Who we really believe God is. When we trip on failure, do we fall into ourselves? Or do we fall into grace? "
56 " Let me tell you what is overwhelming: a default, normal, unexamined American life. That is completely overwhelming. It’s so much to take on, and we all do it simply by not doing anything else instead. "
57 " I didn’t think these habits would matter much because I had no idea how much my ordinary habits were shaping my soul in the most extraordinary ways. I had no idea how much my life was being formed by my habits instead of my hopes. Most of us don’t, of course, because habits are the water we swim in. "
58 " This is why to fully understand habits you must think of habits as liturgies. A liturgy is a pattern of words or actions repeated regularly as a way of worship. The goal of a liturgy is for the participant to be formed in a certain way. For example, I say the Lord’s Prayer every night with my sons because I want the words of Jesus’ prayer to sink down into their bones. I want that prayer to form the contours of their lives. Notice how similar the definition of liturgy is to the definition of habit. They’re both something repeated over and over, which forms you; the only difference is that a liturgy admits that it’s an act of worship. Calling habits liturgies may seem odd, but we need language to emphasize the non-neutrality of our day-to-day routines. Our habits often obscure what we’re really worshiping, but that doesn’t mean we’re not worshiping something. The question is, what are we worshiping? "
59 " The freedom liturgy is dangerous for two reasons. First, it doesn’t actually produce freedom. We think that by rejecting any limits on our habits, we remain free to choose. Actually, by barraging ourselves with so many choices, we get so decision-fatigued that we’re unable to choose anything well. "
60 " I had lived my whole life thinking that all limits ruin freedom, when all along it’s been the opposite: the right limits create freedom. "
