Book Review: The Common Rule by Justin Whitmel Earley

We all have some form of a habit. Some are good habits like brushing your teeth after meals. Some are bad such as picking your nose at the dinner table. There are other habits that can be good or bad depending on the person and who it affects such looking at your smart phone, which is not a bad habit, but you doing it while on a date with your wife, which that is bad.

Justin Whitmel Earley says that a habit is a behavior that occurs automatically, over and over, and often unconsciously. How many times do we pick up the smart phone automatically during the time we are suppose to be reading the Bible? Can Christians form some good habits while getting of the bad habits. That is what Earley wants us to do in his book, The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction.

Earley defines a rule in the context of this book as a set of habits you commit in order to grow in your love of God and neighbor. I applaud the fact that Earley wants to keep these rules God-centered and focused on others rather than self-centered. So, I would not call this a self-help book by any means.

These rules or habits are as follows:

Kneeling Prayer at morning, midday, and bedtime

One meal with others

One hour with phone off

Scripture before phone

One hour of conversation with a friend

Curate media to four hours

Fast from something for twenty-four hours

Sabbath

All of these seem practical and most of them seem achievable. I am wondering with kneeling prayer, could it be just sitting or standing especially if someone has a bad knee. Prayer should always be constant according to 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Fast from something for a whole day does not have to be food. It can be technology or watching sports. Sabbath is rest but it is also worship where we gather with the people of God. Rest is good, but worship is the point of the sabbath.

Overall the book is good. Earley gives a lot of good advice on how to form healthy habits to where it will help us grow in our fellowship with God and serve one another.

Thanks Intervarsity Press for letting me review this book.