DEVOTION / Jiùmìng dàocǎo, a desperate attempt
You remember the panic buying of toilet paper during the early days of the Covid pandemic. Perhaps there are people who still have a hoard of toilet paper — enough to last them for years.
A desperate attempt
China has a term for desperate attempts to save oneself from danger or disaster. Or a dearth of bathroom tissue.
The term is jiùmìng dàocǎo. In Mandarin, it is only four characters: 救命 稻草. Literally, the two terms mean "saving life" and "piece of straw." That makes it equivalent to the English idiom, "a drowning man will grasp for straw." It describes a desperate situation in which there is no hope, but where a person will exert one final, futile attempt before the inevitable happens.
Desperate attempts to please God
Jiùmìng dàocǎo describes the futile attempts of human beings as they try to make themselves right with their god or the universe or fate or whoever their higher power is. You know the straws people cling to.
The golden rule, doing to others what they want others to do to them.
Searching for peace within themselves through meditation.
Denying themselves even the healthy pleasures of life.
Using moral actions to make up for their immoral actions.
These solutions to our moral failures don't seem like straws to the people who cling to them. But the Bible doesn't agree. There is a way that appears to be right, the Spirit says about any human-devised way to enter his good graces, but in the end it leads to death (Proverbs 14:12, also 14:12).
Jesus: the only way
There is one way to be right with God -- only one way. The God who came to earth to provide that way, the God who became one of us to provide that way, says, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). Many other Bible passages confirm that truth. For example, Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12, also 1 Timothy 2:5, John 3:18,36, Romans 6:23).
What a treasure you have to share with people who cling to their straws while they are drowning in their sin. You can share with them the only life preserver that will provide rescue. You can share the one who is the way, the truth, and the life. You can share Jesus and his grace.
Prayer
Holy Spirit, you have brought us to know that Jesus is the only way for us to be right with you. Out of appreciation, lead us to share that good news with others.