The 23rd Psalm has been one of my favorite passages of Scripture for a long time. The direction my life has taken in recent years has made “surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever” particularly special to me. Several major factors have converged to make these recent years the most peaceful, stress-free time of my life while it seems the world has gone mad.
The peace of mind that has flooded my soul comes from my growing awareness of the supernatural, self-perpetuating love that is the source and driving force of all creation. Although being on the receiving side of that love flowing through my kind-hearted wife Karen has contributed greatly to that increasing awareness, distancing myself from the stigmatizing drama of partisan politics several years ago has also been a major factor.
Before stepping off the political treadmill, a lifetime of public service had left me feeling empty and drained. The elected office I’d held for two decades felt more like a yoke of bondage to me than an opportunity for service. I yearned to shed the political shackles that demand conformity while discouraging independent transformative thinking.
The desire for truth and justice that motivated my law enforcement career and led me into the legislature remains undiminished, but the advent of the Information Age has ushered in a pandemic of propaganda that drains the ability and willingness of many to think for themselves. There is an abundance of information, but that is not the same as truth. Without grace, information yields propaganda, what I consider “truth with a taint”. Grace is the cleansing agent that removes the taint. Without grace there is no truth, and without truth, there is no justice.
Truthful information is an important component of effective propaganda, but only if it is carefully presented in a context that allows the propagandist to manipulate the information to achieve their desired outcome. Propaganda is presented from a narrow, carefully crafted perspective, but truth is expansive with great breadth and depth. Truth is pure, complete, and all-encompassing. The more truth we find, the greater our awareness of how much more is left to find.
While serving as a criminal investigator during the latter years of the previous century, I learned that my mind was my most valuable tool. Despite the multitude of technological advances that have greatly improved information gathering capabilities, the trained mind of a skilled investigator dedicated to uncovering truth and letting it fall wherever it lands, remains a key lynchpin of a properly functioning justice system.
Although it was unknown to both of us at the time, my investigative training began soon after I came to Alabama to live with my daddy at age 9, my Grandpa Mack Ball who lived next door to us being my first instructor. Despite my being several years older now than he was then, whenever I envision him in my mind, I still feel like a child in the presence of a wise old man.
Like many poor folks in rural Alabama at the beginning of the 20th century, his formal education was scant. Although he didn’t make it past the 2nd grade, he was neither illiterate nor ignorant. He was a great thinker with a brilliant mind, and his love of truth infected me.
Grandpa was an incessant reader of magazines, newspapers, books, and most of all, the Bible. He knew it cover-to-cover and was always ready for a discussion. He even looked forward to a knock on the door from the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Grandpa Mack Ball philosophized about news, politics, and religion from his dominion under the three water oaks in his backyard while I listened intently. Many of his sayings have become permanent residents inside my mind, like “a man with a watch will tell you what time it is, but a man with two watches is never sure.” Some of his observations like, “a woman can throw more out the back door with a teaspoon than a man can shovel in the front door” would probably grate on some 21st century sensibilities, but they can always be relied upon to stimulate thinking that often ripens into wisdom.
I have been told that Grandpa was once a powerful preacher, but by the time I met him he had stopped attending church regularly. Regardless, his love for the word of the Lord was undiminished and his hunger for more of it remained insatiable. None his sayings have stuck in my mind more than, “The truth will stand when the world is on fire.”
One summer afternoon I warily approached him while he was in deep thought, resting his eyes under the shade of the three enormous water oaks in his backyard and asked if he would help me understand the Bible. It was as though an internal switch activated his mind from “stand by” to “on”.
He was enlivened as his eyed lit up and he opened his Bible to the first verse of the first chapter of Gospel of John while telling me, “If you want to understand the Bible, you’ve got to start here.” With that, he began my tutelage by reading “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” aloud.
Grandpa taught me that seeking truth is the same as seeking God. God is the whole truth and that remains steadfast, but since we are not God and our knowledge and capability to understand is limited and never complete, we must keep our minds open for broader and deeper insights, recognizing that a healthy mind never stops learning and changing.
Another scripture that Grandpa brought to my attention was Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” As a child, I could not grasp the significance of what he was trying to tell me because I was only in the beginning of the first of many spiritual growth cycles that I would experience throughout the following six decades. Each cycle is initiated by a sincere desire to find and follow truth that almost invariably leads to a fierce resistance from egotistical pride that strives to manipulate it. Wisdom is accumulated with the completion of each cycle.
Grandpa and I were oblivious at the time to the depths of the impending sorrow that I recounted in Chapters 3 & 4 of “Picking, Politicking, and Pontificating,” but hindsight tells me that Grandpa’s transformation was winding down and mine was barely beginning. Now that I have moved nearer to where he was, the value of what he was trying to teach me is overwhelming. I wish I could thank him, but he is gone.
What I can do is to honor him and the others like him who have joined the cloud of great witnesses after spending their lives diligently searching the little piece of time and space they were granted, refreshing their minds and revisiting old ideas with new discoveries of eternal truth. When we attempt to contort the truth into something that conforms with a religious, political, or cultural ideology that we deem suitable, convenient, or helps us fit in with whatever group we belong to, or wish to belong, we not only dishonor them, but we dishonor the truth.
We live in a world full of propaganda Goliaths, filled with bluster and pride, driven by lust for power. They are powerful, but they are not invincible. They can be consistently defeated by lowly shepherds who are committed to service first, but prepared and willing to fight a giant when necessary. And when they fight, do not allow the giant to dictate the rules of engagement.
These shepherds view the battlefield through the eyes of a shepherd, engage the adversary with the weapons of a shepherd: the sling and stone. In the realm of spiritual warfare, I recognize truth as the stone and grace as the sling. The power of truth is multiplied exponentially when it is skillfully propelled with the power and accuracy that love provides.
If goodness prevails against powers, principalities, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, it will not be because we have defeated one giant and replaced him with another one, will be because an army of shepherds that has been prepared and dispatched to take the point.
Training is already underway, and my deepest desire is to do my part, whatever that is.
Mike Ball is a former U.S. Marine, Alabama State Trooper, criminal investigator, hostage negotiator, and 20-year veteran of the Alabama House of Representatives. His life of public service was inspired by the untimely loss of his father at the age of 14 and guided by the lessons he learned about life, love, faith, and shepherding.
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