Perry writes about the ‘Higher’ power that sustains him

NEW YORK » Tyler Perry has always relied on the word of God to lift him up in troubling times, but even he admits the onslaught of negative headlines over the past 18 months has tested his spirit.

“I got so consumed with this (presidential) election and the negativity of the campaign and all of the horrible things that were being said back and forth ... (and now) the threat of nuclear war in North Korea, and I just found myself completely getting lost in it, waking up sad and depressed and didn’t know why,” he said.

So the entertainment mogul decided to stop waking up with bad news, restricting his TV diet to only certain times of the day so that it wasn’t flooding his brain. But the film and TV mogul also held tighter to what he says has kept him balanced — his faith.

Perry details that faith in his new book, “Higher Is Waiting,” published by Spiegel & Grau. It’s part autobiography, part Biblestudy guide. Perry uses examples from his own life, from living with an abusive father to his early missteps in show business, to show how faith led him through; each story leads back to a Bible passage to underscore the point.

“Higher Is Waiting” isn’t the first Perry project to involve religion; his movies often touch on spirituality, to the point where it has garnered him some criticism over the years.

Perry says he’s not a Christian filmmaker; he’s a filmmaker who believes in Christ.

“If you look at ‘Acrimony’ that’s coming out next, there are no undertones of spirituality in it at all. It’s just a thriller that I wanted to do just something totally different,” he said of his upcoming film starring Taraji P. Henson due out in March. “So I’ll be all over the place in my storytelling.”

But there are times when he wants to uplift people, and he tries to do that for a demographic

PHOTO BY AMY SUSSMAN — INVISION — AP Actorfilmmaker and author Tyler Perry poses for a portrait in New York to promote his book, “Higher Is Waiting.”