#48: Justin Whitmel Earley — On Faith, Forming Habits, and Finding Contentment

Justin Whitmel Earley is a father of four sons, a mergers & acquisitions lawyer, a husband to Lauren and citizen of Richmond, VA. All the while, he's trying to figure out how to live a life of love in an age of chaos. By that he just means that while his whole life he has wanted to live for an outward purpose, he has also struggled his whole life with his own tendency towards inward disorder, and the habits of a culture that seem to exacerbate those tendencies. ​ The Common Rule is born out of his own struggle with that. He is a former non-profit worker in China who suffered an anxiety collapse in the middle of becoming a father and a lawyer. At the time he was living with a lot of hopes and dreams about what he could do, but his day to day life was absolute chaos. It was in his crash that he realized that his hopes and dreams were not enough - he needed a reformation of everyday habits. He needed a set of guardrails that could save him from myself, and keep him pointed at his vision.   It was in the wake of that dark phase of life that friends and family helped him get on a healthy routine of daily and weekly rhythms which not only saved his life, but unexpectedly introduced him to a whole new way of life. The Common Rule is a version of those daily and weekly practices. ​His effort now is to offer the hope and joy that he's found to the epidemic of anxiety, depression and overwork of so many well-intentioned people. It is a communal way of forming your life in the love of God & neighbor, amidst a culture beset by individualism and consumerism. ​Whether you're an office worker trying to figure out how to make it, a stay-at-home parent trying to figure out how to stay sane, a church trying to figure out how to be missional in America, or an organization wanting to reform its work culture, Justin has something to say to you. He would love to share with you the way the most ordinary habits of love can create extraordinary lives of light