"Thank God For The Things He DIDN'T Give You!"

Has it ever happened to you?  A few years after you prayed for something...a new living situation...a relationship to succeed...something you wanted God to give you...and it doesn't happen, and you THANK Him that __________ fell through?  Sometimes years after the fact we look back and see how God spared us by not giving us what we wanted.  Well, it's happened AGAIN to me and I want to share some recent events in today's Chetitorial.  You see, having publicly thanked Him for blessings He HAS given me (see November 10th), I want to mention just one way I thank Him that, in His perfect wisdom and knowledge and LOVE for me, He withheld something I wanted.  And it seems very apropos for this day before Thanksgiving Day, to write this.

Above is actress Cicely Tyson, who won her first Oscar, an Honorary one, a few nights back.  Five years ago I self-published a Bio of her which, at the time, was the only one of her in existence. I tried to publicize it more than any other book I'd written because my first wife Beth and I met Tyson many times and I found Cicely to be the same inspiring woman in real life as she was in the characters she usually played in movies and on television. Yes, I even PRAYED for the success of my book, but now I'm glad it never happened!

You see, when Tyson accepted her Oscar, I learned that she'd been lying for YEARS about something. And if the book had succeeded and gained a wide circulation, I, in turn, would be passing along the lie that Ms. Tyson herself passed along, becoming a "partaker of other men's sins" unknowingly.  Please, let me explain.

When accepting her award the other night, Ms. Tyson publicly stated that she'll be "94 on December 19th." However, there were seven times Beth and I were at the School which bears her name (it was less than four miles from where we used to live, you see) and the School celebrated the birthday of their "Matriarch" each December.  In 2003, it was set forth that Ms. Tyson was turning 70 and a party was held on December 19th with her present.  In 2004, in front of young, impressionable students, she professed to be 71, in 2005 she allegedly turned 72.  Then, in 2006, she ACTED (Lol) as if she's 73, in 2007 she supposedly was 74, in 2008, the audience of a few hundred was told she was 75 and I also heard her, live, in 2010, say she was turning 77.  Even though Beth has gone to Heaven and thus cannot bear witness to this, I have videos which prove that Ms. Tyson repeatedly lied about her age in those celebrations, making herself 9 years younger than what she NOW says she really is.  This means my book, which starts out by saying "Cicely Tyson was born in 1933" (which is what she deceived us into believing) is TOTALLY WRONG at the very outset, for now, according to the NEW words publicly coming directly out of her mouth (see video on YouTube), she was born in 1924.

Sure, I had friends tell me "the internet says she's _________ (nine years older than what I thought)" but who would YOU believe....what the INTERNET says about someone, or what they personally told you and many others, in real life, seven times??

And let's face it, Tyson doesn't even look 85 (what I thought she was.)  Is it THAT strange that it's hard to believe she's going on...............94 (Lol)??

                           
                            Above: Me with a copy of my book.     Photo taken yesterday.

In my Sunday School class a few months ago, we studied Tony Evans' book "Watch Your Mouth" and when it came to the part about not LYING I was careful to point out that God excuses lying in the rare instances when it's done with His Glory in mind or to preserve human life (and I demonstrated this from Scripture.) However, in my desire to "rightly divide the word of truth" as the teacher of the class, I was careful to assert that MOST lying is done for purely selfish reasons and that is always SIN, Biblically speaking.  Ms. Tyson's lies to her young students, in the Performing Arts School that bears her name and where she is considered a role model of success, were not lies said to Hollywood producers because she couldn't get parts if they thought she was too old.  They were repeated, calculated lies done purely for her VANITY.  My book about her never really "took off" (I sent Ms. Tyson a copy, twice asking for feedback, and she never responded) and  I put it on the shelf when Beth died, thinking that the book, itself was somehow not "sellable." But I see now that GOD was sparing me the humiliation I would have felt if the book HAD been a success, and I thank Him now because HE saw the lies before any of US were able to, and He protected His child.

Which brings me to ANOTHER point. I have to wonder now if anyone who lies repeatedly like that IS His child.  If you look at my book's Table of Contents (above), you'll see that the LAST chapter is entitled "Jesus" and that was the CONCLUSION my book reached...that Ms. Tyson is a consistent Christian!! But "exemplary Christians," which is how my book sums up Ms. Tyson from what I personally knew of her then, do not repeatedly and remorselessly lie to kids who look up to them as a role model.  At this point, I'm not sure whether I'll scrap the book project altogether or rewrite it, after she passes, with this new information (my new wife, Mercedes, a VERY gifted writer, has promised to help me if I rewrite). But as I said earlier, I wanted to write the book in the first place because I was amazed that Tyson appeared to be the same in real life as she was on TV, and now I've seen her assert ONE thing in real life and say something totally DIFFERENT on TV (namely, her true age.)  I'm not sure if I'd WANT to redo a Tyson tome in light of this new revelation about her, but I'll pray about it.

Then, there's the problem of Cicely's long standing friendship with BILL COSBY (which I mentioned in the book, written BEFORE he was disgraced and justly jailed.)  You see, Tyson and Cosby were VERY close...when she married Miles Davis on Thanksgiving Day, 1981, it was in COSBY'S house.  So how do I rewrite her Bio now and dance around all of THAT mess?? Not sure I want to and again, had my book achieved wide success five years ago I might be embarrassed about THAT situation but God, who knows the Truth and knows the future, thankfully did NOT give me the widespread success I sought with this book.

So, what can YOU thank God for this Thanksgiving..................something He didn't give YOU??

Above: Ms. Tyson's attention-getting, over the top hat she wore to Aretha's funeral a few months back.  At first, it's reported she said that ARETHA told her to wear it, and the other night it's reported that she says someone ELSE did now.  I don't know whether to believe her or not anymore, since learning of the lie!!


Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!!