Grasping at Straws
Uncertainty, incoherence, confusion, insecurity. These words describe the days in which we live. In the past year a global pandemic, racial tension and violent riots, political divisions and a disputed election have disrupted the normal flow of life. Such turmoil produces disorientation and in times of disorientation we often grasp at straws to find some coherence in our lives. We desperately seek to make sense of the chaos we witness.
The phrase “grasping at straws,” comes from the pen of a man who lived and died in days of insecurity and uncertainty. Sir Thomas Moore served King Henry VIII of England as Lord High Chancellor, but after refusing to declare the King the sole head of the church of England, Henry ordered Moore’s execution. While awaiting his death, Moore wrote an extraordinary book entitled Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation (1534).
Moore depicts a fictional dialogue between Vincent and his dying uncle Anthony who shares his reflections on life and how to live it well.[1] The voice of Uncle Anthony is really the voice of Moore as he reflects on his own impending execution. Facing his own mortality, Moore describes the desperate attempt to find one’s footing as “Lyke a man that in peril of drowning catcheth whatsoever cometh next to hand ... be it never so simple a sticke.”
The drowning man will grasp for anything in an effort stay afloat – even sticks or bits of straw that offer no real hope. Grasping at straws – the effort of the desperate when they’ve run out of answers.
In our day, it is easy to feel as if we are drowning. Rapid cultural shifts, societal upheaval, and a global pandemic have undermined our sense of coherence so that many now find themselves grasping at straws.
This is nothing new. In 8th century Israel, the world of the Jews turned upside down. That century began as a time of security and prosperity for Israel. Jeroboam II lead a long 41-year reign characterized by national stability and economic success. Yet during these prosperous and secure days, the Northern Kingdom was becoming morally degenerate. The poor were abused for the sake of the wealthy. Baal worship flourished. The covenant was ignored. Then near the end of Jeroboam’s reign, the Assyrian Empire emerged as the first world superpower, bent on subjugating the smaller countries of the region. Israel plunged into a time of political intrigue, coups, and dysfunctional alliances in an effort to find security in the face of the looming Assyrian threat.
Into this setting stepped the great 8th century prophets like Hosea. More than any prophetic book in the Bible, Hosea speaks to a people grasping at straws – seeking some sense of orientation in an increasingly disoriented world.
Desperate people often do the unimaginable. Israel’s desperation for security finally resulted in an attack on her brothers and sisters in Judah – the Southern Kingdom. Anxiety and fear led to a civil war between the tribes as Israel tried to force Judah to join a coalition against the rising Assyrian threat.
In desperation Israel turned to foreign alliances and her own military power to secure her national existence. But the prophet Hosea saw how this would end.
But you have planted wickedness,
you have reaped evil,
you have eaten the fruit of deception.
Because you have depended on your own strength
and on your many warriors,
the roar of battle will rise against your people,
so that all your fortresses will be devastated. Hosea 10:13-14a
Hosea resolutely condemns Israel’s desire for a military or political solution to the insecurity and uncertainty of their day.
“You are destroyed, Israel,
because you are against me, against your helper.
Where is your king, that he may save you?
Where are your rulers in all your towns,
of whom you said,
‘Give me a king and princes’?
So in my anger I gave you a king,
and in my wrath I took him away.
The guilt of Ephraim is stored up,
his sins are kept on record. Hosea 13:9-12
All this leads to the central message of Hosea: "I have been the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no other God but me and besides me there is no savior." 13:4.
Political leaders could not save Israel. Alliances with foreign nations could not save Israel. Military might could not save Israel. Each had become an idol, but it was all a “grasping at straws.” In Israel’s time of desperation, the only hope was to cling tightly to God for “you know no other God but me and besides me there is no savior."
In our uncertain, disorienting world we would do well to learn the lesson of history. Political parties and ideologies are simply straws. They offer no lasting hope. As Christians we follow the teaching of Christ who advised that in anxious times, we “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.” Only there will we find real hope and real solutions to the anxieties of an uncertain, chaotic world.
[1] In a way, the Dialogue is the inverse of Lewis’ Screwtape Letters in which Uncle Screwtape advises Wormwood how to destroy a life.