'Where is God in all of this?' publishes today!
Dear Friend,
My 9th book—Where is God in all of this?—publishes today! I'm really excited about this sincerely written, powerful creation. I also think that its just the coolest thing that the weekend that it comes out, I happen to be in Jerusalem for the first time, asking the very same question on a multitude of levels: Where is God in all of this? So far I have found but one answer here: it's the hummus, I tell you. God is fresh Israeli hummus. But I am sure there will be more to come, as this odyssey of self-reflection and transformation continues on. I came here because I felt called to look deeper. I've never felt more ripe for the picking.
Because of the timing of my trip, I wasn't able to get a physical proof of the book before I left. Luckily, the very first sighting of the new book just arrived, from Denise Jenks in Saranac Lake, New York (image above). Rumor has it that all the pages are there and the book looks solid! It is available for order (paperback, ebook, kindle) at Amazon US... LINK; Amazon UK… LINK; Amazon Canada… LINK; Amazon Australia... LINK; Barnes and Noble... LINK
Upon reading the book, author-activist Andrew Harvey had this to say: “Jeff Brown is one of my favorite teachers, fearless and wild and fabulously provocative. I tremendously enjoyed Where is God in all of this? and recommend it wholeheartedly to all those who want to engage with the divine, nakedly and sincerely amidst the conflagration of crisis we are all battling with. Jeff is not selling anything but the flaming sincerity of his soul. All those who respect truth will not only respect this book but delight in it and learn from it as I have.”
‘WHERE IS GOD IN ALL OF THIS? is now available at any bookstore or library worldwide through Ingram Distribution. If you feel so inspired, ask your bookstore or library to order in a copy. I would be surprised if there isn't at least one life-affirming or, dare I say, life-changing, insight in this book for anyone who reads it.
Identity Shaping
As I reflect more on the book, I reflect more on the various ways that my identity was shaped in this life. Perhaps the most pressing forces were some strange combination of conformity and rebellion—neither of which reflected my true self in its idiosyncratic nature. Sometimes the rebellion reflected my fight for that self, but seldom did it precisely capture it. I see this all too often—those of us who define ourselves as a reflection of what we saw around us, those of us who define ourselves as a reaction against what we saw around us. It almost seems like those are the only two options available in western culture: be like us, or be unlike us. But where lies the real path that is you?
What I love about the Encodings Model at the heart of this book is that it invites you to honor the authentic identity that courses through you. That is, a life characterized by a whole host of encodings that live at the heart of this incarnation. And it helps you to understand why you had to live a life separate from them. You had to survive, you had to protect yourself, and you had to distract yourself from the madness of the world. You had to, even if you sensed that there was an entirely different identity dying to be lived below the surface. In this book, you clearly recognize the gap between the world we live in, and the world we are born to live in. And it gives you the energy you need to finally bridge the gap.