Let The Truth Be Told: My Struggles, Your Struggles: "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly"

By Charles Douglas Dantzler

Let the Truth Be Told: My Struggles, Your Struggles: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the compelling account of a man whose life journey, like so many others, was filled with countless struggles, setbacks, and victories. Even though things didn't always turn out the way he would have liked, he didn't give up but continued to fight using his faith coupled with the Spirit of God via the Word of God and other resources, not allowing his struggles to deter him in his lifelong journey. Charles Douglas Dantzler, after retiring from thirty-two years of pastoring, fifteen years as a para-professional community school educator, nineteen years of jail and prison ministry, at age sixty-six sold most of his possessions, packed his bags, jumped in his 2011 Buick Regal, and left the comfort of family and friends to discover and experience the next phase of his life, a new life living his truth. Fasten your seat belt for the ride of your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781643501802

Book preview

cover.jpg

Let The Truth Be Told

My Struggles, Your Struggles: ?The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly?

Charles Douglas Dantzler

Copyright © 2018 Charles Douglas Dantzler

All rights reserved

First Edition

Page Publishing, Inc

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc 2018

ISBN 978-1-64350-179-6 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64350-180-2 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

I dedicate this book to my parents, Friendly Donaldson Dantzler and mother, Emmarie (Bowen) Dantzler for providing for me and my siblings. Not like so many others in our world today, we grew up with both parents in the home. A home that was full of love, where both parents made sure we were taken care of. In fact, based on today’s standards, we were poor, but didn’t know it because our parents make sure we lack for nothing.

My mother was always there for us and played a major part in introducing all of us to God by her example in and out of the home. This ultimately led my siblings and I to receive The Salvation Experience.

I also thank God for my siblings: Flora Lee (Dantzler) Fleming, Barbara Jean (Dantzler) Brown, Elaine Marie Dantzler, Tyrone Dewayne Dantzler, and Norman Michael Dantzler for the close family love we are able to maintain toward each other, even when we disagreed growing up on Easy Street, and the wonderful times and respect we have together as adults.

I especially give thanks to my three adult sons, Maurice Deshaun Dantzler, Douglas Charles Dantzler, and Jeremy Dion Dantzler, for their years of support, patience, and understanding during those times when I wasn’t able to be there due to other obligations; yet the love, respect, and support was always there.

I thank God, for my six grandchildren; Raveen, Douglas (DJ), Manuela, Sofia, Eliyana, Marissa, and two great granddaughters Riley, Gabrielle, and another great grand on the way.

Lastly, I am grateful for my longtime friend Kenneth Rommel Gillard, who’s always been a source of continued encouragement through thick and thin, Iam Bennu who willingly was a contextual sounding board and to many others who have attributed in some way to my life.

Your life is the message.

—Ruben West

Let The Truth Be Told

My life, your life.

My struggles, your struggles.

My victories, your victories.

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

—Charles Douglas Dantzler,

February 2017

Preface

The book you have in your hand was born out of the varied struggles of my life, as well as the life of others I have had the pleasure of working with on some level.

It all started two months after officially retiring from thirty-two years of pastoring, but not ministry, and preparing for my next move in life. In preparing to relocate, while having a casual father-and-son conversation with my youngest son, Jeremy, I shared with him some of my thoughts surrounding the writing of my fifth project and how I wanted it to be something different from my previous projects—The Salvation Experience: The Key to Understanding God in Your Life and its companion The Comprehension Reinforcement Workbook: Genuine Faith How Does It Work (Ecko House Publishing) and lastly, Seeing Your Setback As a Setup for Your Comeback (Page Publishing).

Even though on a number of levels, all were very informative and has and is changing lives, it is my desire not only to continue that process with this book, but it is my hope to have a greater impact not only with those who have benefited from my previous projects but to write another inspiring book which would catch the attention of a larger audience to offer information, inspiration, encouragement to instill hope for a better today and a better tomorrow to the lives of many, despite their struggles, whether physical, emotional, financial, spiritual, etc.

To that, he replied, Dad, you need to write something about your life. You need to put it out there. Of course, I was shocked at what Jeremy, who at the time was forty years old, said, yet it was a display of genuine love for me, wanting me to do me. As an adult, he obviously realized and believed that the experiences, struggles, and victories of my life was worth sharing. Even though by doing so, I believe he knew that I would have to push the boundaries of being transparent and go beyond what I had written about my life in my previous projects, and in doing so, gaining the attention of a larger reading audience, thereby offering the reader (like you) some tools which could be used in your everyday life, especially during the times of struggle.

In hindsight, little did he or I know this part of our conversation would start me to ponder his reply for the next four months; not fully resting at night, during which time, I had many thoughts and ideas, verbal and nonverbal times of prayer, private praise, worship, reading the Word of God, and having many times and places of shedding of tears, agonizing over what exactly to write, how should it be written, and the pre-title which would set the tone, direction, purpose, and content of the book.

Part of the waiting included praying that I will have a special unction or an inward knowing that it was time to start.

First, with so many different gods or religions in the world today, I am in no position to tell you the reader whom to believe in as your source of spiritual guidance and strength.

Secondly, for myself, I chose the God of the Bible through the person of Jesus the Christ as the foundation of my belief system. With an undeniable active belief and faith in him for my life, as you will see, in my struggles he supplied the strength, guidance, healing, protection and the victories, through the good, the bad and the ugly.

Having said this, through long-term experience, I do recommend you do the same, using the three Ds of faith—desire, determination, and discipline (see my book, Genuine Faith: How Does It Work?)—to bring you through the struggles of your life.

Introduction

Let the Truth Be Told: My Struggles, Your Struggles: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a compelling real-life account of one man’s journey through his struggles, setbacks, and victories.

Most of the time when we think of struggles, we see them primarily as an inward conflict between good and bad, right or wrong. However, the source of your struggles could be the pressure of meeting the expectations of family, relatives, or friends around you, your environment, the standards of a religious or Christian group you identify with, or from what society considers the norm, just to name a few.

Born in a middle-class family, raised by two parents—the father an auto factory worker and a stay-home mother of six children—the author records the good, the bad and the ugliness of his life in hopes that you, the reader, despite what you have gone through or going through, be inspired to stay encouraged and, more importantly, keep a constant mustard seed, mountain-moving level of faith in someone greater then yourself, in his case the God of the Bible, so the struggles which seem to make up a large portion of your life will become stepping stones for your freedom and victories.

Chapter 1

How It All Started

Finally, February 2017, during the two weeks leading up to my sixty-seventh birthday, the conversation with Jeremy began to invade my thoughts concerning the pre-title of this book. At times, I found myself in a mental and emotional battle with different titles, understanding pre-titles are not final, as I mentioned earlier it temporarily sets the direction and tone on how the book is to be written. And as one begins to write, sometimes the title begins to go through various stages of development and changes.

Add to this, the battle on how to be transparent with my life, without causing the reader to get sidebarred with its content for the purpose of gossip and not receiving valuable information that would have a positive impact for change in their life. After all, the Word of God does say in Psalms 105:15, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

However, while all the aforementioned was going on, one morning, while working out at Planet Fitness, I believe the Holy Spirit brought back to mind some notes I had typed some years ago while living in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and working as a computer liaison for Indel-Davis, Inc., a company that dealt with the drilling, refinery, and distribution of natural gas and oil.

Because over the years, I had relocated from two separated apartment complexes, bought and sold three homes, rented one, and now at the time of writing this book, living in an entirely different state, two questions came to the forefront of my mind: did I still have those notes or did I accidentally throw them away? Secondly, duh! If I can’t remember throwing them away, they had to be somewhere and I need to find them.

So again, I sought the Lord by first quoting a scripture, I had read in a translation of the Bible, which I don’t remember the translation or scripture reference, which says, Those things which are hidden, are hidden to be revealed. In addition, in my inner man, I believe that when they are located, it would be an indication that it was truly the time for me to start writing. I believe it; I expected that any day I would find them and low and behold, the first place I looked, a place where I had looked before, they were revealed. Praise God!

To my surprise, one interesting thing I noticed about the notes was the first page was dated January 27, 1983, and they were concluded August 9, 1983, which when you do the math, the fact it’s now February 2017, the notes were written almost thirty-four years ago.

In addition to the conversation I had with my son Jeremy, as I shared some thoughts on this project with Apostle Dontez Williams, pastor of Save by Grace-Detroit and Save by Grace-Flint (formerly A Word in Season Church, from which I retired as pastor), he reminded me that Jesus in his day of earthly ministry, often time wouldn’t directly name some of the things the people of his day were dealing with, which helped each person focus on applying the principles to their individual struggle, more so than seeing the principles as related to a particular struggle.

Also, I shared this point with Pastor Larry Jordan of Family Victory Church, Southfield Michigan, and later with Pastor Jimmie Whitaker of Bethesda Temple Church in Flint Michigan which both were not only colaborers in ministry, but were also my childhood friends, without sharing what Apostle Williams stated, each in their own way, from a different perspective, agreed with Apostle Williams.

In fact, one particular scripture that Pastor Jimmie reminded me of said this,

And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, ‘The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you,’ and they shall say to me, ‘What is his name? what shall I say unto them?’ And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. (Exodus 3:13–14, KJV)

In other words, God was declaring who he was then and in the future as the incarnate (God in flesh; Jesus), who is able to be what you need for him to be no matter what kind of struggle you are faced with.

Therefore, in order for you the reader to do the same, in most if not in all cases, I will not name or focus on any particular struggle, in hopes that as you read, you will focus on or fill in the blank with the sources of your struggle, for your freedom.

Without any further explanation I present to you: Let the Truth Be Told: My Struggles, Your Struggles: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Chapter 2

In the Beginning There Was Struggle

Over the years, I’ve come to understand that struggles, whether self-inflicted or from life itself, tend to be very hard on a person a variety of ways—physically, emotionally, financially, or spiritually.

In the beginning of my life, unknowingly, and later with knowledge of God’s word, in some way the principles of Genuine Faith, particularly the three D’s of faith (desire, determination, and discipline) played a significant role in my struggles and having gone through those struggles, as you will see later in this book, causing those struggles to become rewarding in some way in my life and I believe the same will be true for you.

Let me start by sharing this scripture:

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (Second Corinthian 12:9, KJV)

When Paul cried out to God concerning his struggle, he replied, For my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Amplified Bible translation says: My mercy are more than enough—always available—regardless of the situation; for [my] power is being perfected [and is completed and shows itself most effectively] in [your] weakness.

In other words, God told Paul that in his struggles God’s power or God’s abilities is more than what Paul needed in his time(s) of need, and that power, when he makes the choice to stand on the truth of what God says, shows itself big in his time of weakness or struggle.

The last part of this translation of Second Corinthians 12:9, it says: For [my] power is being perfected [and is completed and shows itself most effectively] in [your] weakness.

This part of the verse, gives us a different perspective to consider in our struggles, that in or through the struggle, some positive growth can take place within us, one being the ability to let God’s power work in us, through us and for us, which increases our faith.

At age five, trying to deal with a brace I had to wear due to the results of having polio, when I promised my mother that I was going to use my arm and she agreed to remove the brace, those words, that action (unknown to me at the time) became the source of strength, or the foundation for faith to work in my life then and for the many other weaknesses or struggles for the rest of my life.

Definitions and Quotes Concerning Struggle

I want to start this journey by saying, at different times; life offers every individual on earth, some type of struggle. In fact, it’s not unusual having to deal with multiple struggles simultaneously.

Struggle or to struggle

To make strenuous or violent efforts in the face of difficulties or opposition (struggling with the problem)

To proceed with difficulty or with great effort

(Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

Struggles are required in order to survive in life; because in order to stand up, you gotta know what falling down is like. (Author Unknown)

You need to spend time crawling alone through shadows to truly appreciate what it is to stand in the sun. (Shaun Hick)

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. (Frederick Douglass)

Associated Press (Nedra Pickler) in his news politics article of March 1, 2015, entitled, Obama Invoking Civil Rights Struggles Past and Present, quotes former president Barack Obama, the forty-fourth and first African-American president of the United States of America as saying, When I take Malia and Sasha down with Michelle next week, down to Selma, part of what I’m hoping to do is to remind them of their own obligations. Because there are going to be marches for them to march and struggles for them to fight.

Not only does this apply to Malia and Sasha Obama; in life there are going to be times of struggles you are going to have to deal with. My struggles may not be identical to yours, but on a general level, each one of them will have some things in common—one being, they caused a type of disruption in some way in my and your daily routine.

Even though, like with most things, struggles have a direct or indirect spiritual component; struggles are not necessarily sin related.

And as you will see in reading about my life and in the life of others, how you deal with them will have an effect on its outcome—positive or negative.

Chapter 3

File Number 789

File number 789 in the Michigan Department of Health records the following: on February 17, 1950, at Flint Hurley Hospital the birth of a negro baby boy to Friendly Donaldson Dantzler, a General Motors machine factory worker and US Army veteran, the father, and Emmarie Bowen-Dantzler, a stay-home mother, to which they named Charles Douglas Dantzler. He was the second child but first son of three boys and three girls and brought excitement and joy to this couple.

After a few days, the proud parents who resided at 1249 Easy Street, just off of the former St. John Street on Flint’s North side, took this new born son home to be greeted by his elder sister Flora, who loved her little brother and quickly fell into the protective big sister role, which at the time of the writing of this book is still being played out sixty-seven years later.

Top left, going down: Barbara, Charles, Tyrone.

Top Center Mama Dantzler.

Top right: Flora, Elaine, Norman (aka Michael).

As I started to grow and develop, sometime around the age of two, while trying to teach me how to feed myself, my parents noticed it was difficult, if not impossible, for me to feed myself using my right hand, which caused great concern.

During an emergency scheduled appoint with the family doctor, Maurice J. Smith, who was also the attending physician at my birth, it was determined, after a few tests, that I had contracted polio. Polio, short for poliomyelitis, is a disease that can damage the nervous system and cause paralysis, had affected my right upper arm and shoulder muscles.

The doctor, as a result put a brace around my waist, which was formed in the shape of an L, allowed my arm to rest in that position, while being strapped down. As I explained in my book, Genuine Faith: How Does It Work? when I started school having to deal with this condition, was the beginning of many struggles in my life, as well as experience many victories.

In fact, because I was determined not to let this condition hinder me, I begged my mother to remove the brace along with the promise of using it. My mother removed the brace, and for the last sixty-three years, I have had 90 percent usage of the arm and shoulder.

As a kid growing up, because of the physical size and appearance of the effects of this condition, along with limited use due to a lack of muscle strength, I struggled with being accepted by other children. I was too small to be picked to play on the neighborhood football teams, oftentimes looked at and labeled as being crippled. I can remember around the age of fourteen, in gym class, the other boys would snatch the basketball from me and not include me in the shooting hoop lineup, from the free throw line, just to name a few.

Because my mother took my siblings and I to church for Sunday school and church service, in a childlike way, somewhere around the age of seven, I can vividly remember angrily thinking due to these small incidents, someday I would have my day, and that day came when I was ask to stand up in Sunday school in recognition of my birthday, which gave me a sense of being accepted despite the physical difference, which lead to me participating in the youth department along with the other children from my neighborhood. In fact, it appeared that the whole youth group was made up of most of the neighborhood children on Easy Street, including those who had rejected me early on, which caused me to look forward to going to church.

In fact, when not at church, some of the