And in This Corner: A Thought Provoking Journey Into a Spirtual Main Event!

By Jason Mansur and Kendra Jade

In a world of photoshop, "reality tv", ghost writers, and content editors, do you ever wonder if anything you read or see is authentic anymore? Authenticity scares many people. Nobody's perfect and yet often times that's just what many of us pretend to be. Why? Why do we fear being different? In this book we'll delve into some very personal and authentic waters of spiritual contemplation written with a fight night theme. The photos are real, the content real, and the heart is real. Just as real and unpredictable as the ring of combat, this book offers an unpredictable and uncut look directly into some places many would fear to explore. It's going to be fun! Will you join me in a spiritual journey down a thought provoking highway towards a destination of reconciliation? If we choose to see God in everything, we will in turn see the good in it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781942451259

Book preview

on!

Religion vs Relationship

Before I begin with round one, let me ask each of you to do what I so often have not. Often times when I read a book that interests me, I will impatiently skip past the intro and/or preface wanting desperately to get into the meat of the book. If you suffer from the same short attention span like I do, please take a few moments to read through the intro and preface to get a foundation before we begin.

I would love for this book to be a thought provoking catalyst paralleled with the undeniable truth that NONE OF US HAVE IT ALL FIGURED OUT! No one ever has and no one ever will. At least not in these bodies on this world. We still must forge ahead in building a better world when and where we can, even if it’s just in our own mind. There is a reason Jesus answered most questions with vague answers or questions of His own. He too wanted us to know that things are not always as they seem and they are not always black and white. He wanted our participation and created avenues for us to do so. Yet many of us still long for a simple, just give it to me straight method more out of laziness than heartfelt desire. That being said, lets move on…

INTRODUCTION:

): Welcome everybody to what is shaping up to be an event for the ages. Weighing in tonight are the best of the best when it comes to hand to hand combat. We are looking forward to some epic competition with bouts between heavy weights like religion vs relationships and love vs lust. Looks like it’s going to be an exciting night summiting at the highly anticipated main event: The Word vs The Bible. Let’s go ahead and break down our first bout on the fight card: Religion vs Relationship.

Fighting out of the Blue Corner is Religion. Most would conceive this first match to be an obvious beat down with religion’s long powerful history. It would seem as though Religion feels the same way stepping to the center of the ring with an arrogant confidence. Fighting out of the Red Corner, Relationship make its way to the ring stopping for handshakes, high fives, and autographs along the way.

History has been written and re-written time and time again under the powerful influence of religion. Kingdoms rise and fall, wars are waged, as conflict and division continue worldwide due to the impact religion has on the human race. Religion, as a whole, has stood through years of contention, controversy, death, and almost incomprehensible sacrifice. Relationships seem to fail daily based on something as frivolous as a Facebook post, a harsh word, phrase, or even a stink eye look. They can often be fragile and messy. It would seem as though Religion has got the upper hand in this battle, but let’s see how it all plays out. Round one beings now. Ding, Ding.

. I mean, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen her spring into a rear naked choke hold from crouching tiger hidden dragon with spider monkey agility. I never thought that our couch had the spring power to turn a sweet innocent loving wife into a crazed ninja with cat like reflexes. It’s kind of like trying to steal a fresh slab of salmon from an Alaskan grizzly bear during the first week of spring, minus the hairy back. But believe me when I say there are claws in this equation. LOL! Back to the real battle.

Even though a situation like this one may leave us both in a bruised and battered condition, we can still walk away best of friends. It’s a blessed thing when two people can battle something out and be closer because of it. Do you have someone like that in your life? Someone you can argue with about a sub categorical topic with intense passion and then follow it up with a genuine hug? If not, let me be that person. Let me care enough to push your buttons, light your fire, or pull your trigger. Then let’s walk away from this conversation better. Not because we necessarily agree, but because we were able to be more honest with each other and ourselves than ever before.

Have you ever noticed how true honest feelings come out in conflict? Sometimes they are a bit exaggerated due to the increase in emotional influence, but people normally speak the unfiltered version of their opinion when they get worked up. I yearn for a world where we can speak that unfiltered versions of our minds without the influence of emotion in an environment of safety and trust. Political correctness rules our nation of free speech and it feels as if we are walking on eggshells whenever we address an active topic of discussion regardless of whether it’s about religion, race, sexual orientation, politics, etc. That being said, let’s go ahead and tackle one of the most sensitive and currently avoided topics in general discussion: Religion.

Let’s start by taking a look at the definition of each competitor before we continue. Religion as defined by dictionary.com, is a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects. I think I would agree that is a pretty fair assessment. Relationship is simply a connection, association, or involvement with others. Each word can be linked by a connection with other people. Without others neither can exist and they both need a starting point of similar interest to build upon. A group of people with opposing beliefs will not form a cohesive religion nor will these individuals naturally start relationships.

Have you ever had one of those moments when you meet someone new and within moments you are either like, This could be my new best friend or vise versa, Where did this person come from and how quickly can I get away? Is it just me or does the second example here always seem to develop an instant BFF syndrome? Down side to loving the unlovable. Just kidding. No I’m not. Yes I am. Common ground is foundational for both religion and relationship. What’s built upon that foundation differs immensely.

Perseverance through hardship is what really tests someone’s or something’s strength and at some point in time, we will all suffer some form of it. It’s what materializes from the conflict that matters most. When a set of beliefs, as in religion, is opposed there often becomes a split. A new religion or denomination can arise and a chasm is formed. Hearts can become hardened and minds can become set in their own prison of self-absorbed beliefs opposed to those who walked away. What seemed so strong to begin with now becomes the source of division over, often times, petty details of doctrine or theology. Opposites don’t always mesh well when it comes to religion, but can offer a balanced strength in relationships.

For example, I think of my wife as the sweet in our relationship and I’m usually the sour. She’s the flower and I’m the dirt. I’m the milk and she’s the cookie. Okay that last one doesn’t make any sense unless you know that I really don’t like milk. Haha. I first noticed this concept with a married couple who were techers at our school. And no, I’m not going to use any names on this one. Lol! One of them had a friendly pushover teaching style and the other a very controlling structured one. I can remember wondering how those two got together, and actually fell in love? Then it all started to make sense. We all have strengths and weaknesses and the blessing of having someone that encourages our strengths and fills the gap left by our weaknesses, is immeasurable.

Christianity as we know it, ultimately began with the Apostles. And yet, even with the closeness and anointing of both Peter and Paul, they had differences in opinion. I think that many people have this idea that those who lived thousands of years were somehow completely different from us today. That we somehow evolved into a mentally and physically superior race, yet somehow with inferior spiritual abilities. I do believe a certain amount of evolution does take place based on environmental and cultural changes. Our minds and bodies were meant to adapt to our environment, but people were always people and ate, slept, thought, and behaved as such.

People had many of the same thoughts and questions about spiritual topics that we do today. There were substantial cultural differences, but there always will be. They filtered their ideas through their personalities and experiences just like we do. They longed for change from things that caused stress towards those that produced comfort. We may have more knowledge, but quite often far less wisdom due to nothing more than lack of effort. We want what comes easy. Why else would we wait in a drive through lane for 20 minutes when we could walk in and get our order in 10, or pace tirelessly around the room looking for the television remote in order to avoid getting up again later? Have you ever ordered a pizza using your computer or phone and then argued about who would have to walk all the way over to the door to get it, or drove around a parking lot for an extended period of time just to save a few steps of walking? Tell me I’m no the only one who hesitates to grab the last paper towel off the roll just because that means I’d have to replace it. That cardboard showing through the last layer of paper towel is a blatant warning screaming out, DON’T DO IT! LOL!

We play this lazy mind game with facial tissue at our home. It goes something like this: Whenever pulling out the last tissue from a box, my first instinct is to use it and walk swiftly away. Lazy right? Not so! Instead of walking away, I will neatly tuck the tissue back into its home like it was never disturbed. Muhahaha! You won’t get me this time kleenex box! Then I will just use toilet paper or walk all the way into the other room to use a more full box just to avoid the inevitable task of replacing the empty box. On occasion, that last tissue will sit there for weeks waving its banner of surrender, tempting those who walk by to fall victim to its trap. Oh the games we play…or maybe it’s just me. Sorry Heather and Kendra!

Most things did not come easily for our ancestors, so working hard for things may have been more natural. When comparing ourselves with them, we have to agree that we cannot fully understand everything about their lives, nonetheless, people overall continue to think, act, and believe along the same lines. Try not to think of them as spiritual super heroes from a different world acting and reacting in mysterious ways. Instead make every effort to reflect and relate to being there. Imagine walking through those historic events among those we, Biblically speaking, all know about so well even though our world has changed so much.

If you were to do an Internet search on the number of denominations there are in Christianity, you would come across numbers anywhere between 21,000 to 42,000. That’s approximately 10-21 new denominations every single year since the time of the apostles. So what started as one united Body of Christ has since been divided thousands upon thousands of times. It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around it. Why do we allow our spiritual enemy the pleasure of severing the Body of Christ over and over and over again? There are thousands of religions worldwide but 5 main; Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and New Age. The chaos created by a chasm of intolerance across religious lines of just these five has been to the demise of millions of lives spanning across thousands of years. Why would we want to internally add to that detachment?

Why have we allowed the rigid lines of religious denomination to build walls between us through doctrinal issues based on individual interpretations filtered by an infinitely changing world? It’s often thought of as common knowledge that there is power in numbers, yet religious views sever the bond of people on both an international and local level. Since religion is based on a set of agreed upon beliefs and driven more by traditions, it begins to weaken when change hits the fan. The founding creators may take their beliefs to the grave, but those around them will begin to mentally and spiritually evolve with the changing times. It is what it is.

Wouldn’t you agree that our faith has evolved for the greater? Forgiveness is pretty nice, isn’t it? I mean, the whole idea of it wasn’t leading the way in Biblical times. If we still operated the same way, I would have met an end like Stephen being stoned to death in a public place. Honestly, I have had some brutal yelling matches with God that could have easily been taken as blasphemy by someone from Biblical times. That blasphemy therefore justified being stoned by my neighbors based on religious law.

I don’t think it probably would have gone down quite the same though. It would have looked more like a spoiled toddler being drug out of the McDonalds play land kicking and screaming with little chance of ever impacting generations with my impeccable show of courage and faith like that of Stephen. Religion is a force to be reckoned with over all, but when broken into thousands and thousands of small pieces, it doesn’t have the same strength. I would venture to say that religion is its own worst enemy.

A weak link is formed when we allow division within. Instead of focusing on the common ground, differences can become more important than then those they represent. When our attention is taken off from our common link with each other and instead reflected upon our differences, we become susceptible to attacks from our spiritual enemy. People are all that matter to God. I believe that principle should also line up with the desires of our heart. God created mankind and mankind created religion. The realization of this lands a shattering blow at religion’s expense. Let’s see how the coming rounds play out.

We live in a constantly changing world. We are each one made with our own beautiful differences that make for a charming existence. Life offers us a collection of variety perfectly orchestrated for our growth and involvement, and therein lies the weak link of religion. Religion can only thrive where change is not a part of life. A world where no change takes place and individuals are content with lives filled with predefined rituals and beliefs does not exist, nor should it. Each season of life brings newness and that newness spawns beautiful variety. Strong relationships not only survive change, but can thrive because of it. Let’s take a look at what a healthy relationship looks like.

In this illustration our closeness with God is directly influencing our closeness with each other. As we grow closer to God, we also grow closer to each other and vise versa. I like to visualize the bond as a rubber band like material. A strong one can stretch to great lengths, but the strength of that band is compromised with longer distance and likewise strengthened radically with a closeness with Him.

Our vertical relationship with God is built in much the same way as our horizontal relationship. It’s built through intentional time spent in honest and intimate communication. Distance through neglect has the opposite affect whether intentional or our of ignorance. When we stop pursuit of either a gradual distance begins to form. The band eventually pulls so tight, that just the slightest change can cause it to snap. The straw that broke the camel’s back didn’t do anything on its own, but its destructive force was built on the ignorance of previous warning. Let’s take a deeper look verbally into what a healthy relationship should look like.

I often try to imagine what it was like for Adam and Eve as they experienced the bliss of each day in the garden of Eden. I can’t imagine staring into the powerful stare of a lion while caressing its beautiful mane without fear of being eaten. Their relationship with God was what I would describe as picture perfect.

Then the enemy stepped onto the stage making empty promises that would put an end to their heaven on earth. One great relationship with a perfect God now broken and a new relationship with a sinful world started. A large chasm now formed between them and their Creator. Why? When they had it all, why throw it away? Even the strongest relationships can be quickly destroyed by discontentment and the false promise that what you don’t have is somehow better than that which you do. When discontentment checks in, it doesn’t leave without a fight.

In life, just like in the ring, we are either on offense or defense. We are either moving forward or falling back. There is no standing still. Standing still in combat most certainly will equal your