Amiel: his own nothingness

Tuesday, May 10, 2022
Meditation:
When you hide your face,
    they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
    they die and return to the dust.
When you send your Spirit,
    they are created,
    and you renew the face of the earth.
    —Psalm 104:29-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    At the bottom of the modern man there is always a great thirst for self-forgetfulness, self-distraction; he has a secret horror of all which makes him feel his own littleness; the eternal, the infinite, perfection, therefore scare and terrify him. He wishes to approve himself, to admire and congratulate himself; and therefore he turns away from all those problems and abysses which might recall to him his own nothingness.
    ... Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821-1881), The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel, tr. Mrs. Humphry Ward, New York: Macmillan, 1885, p. 169 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 104:29; Gen. 2:7; 3:19; Job 1:21; Ps. 90:3; Isa. 6:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, without Your grace, I am nothing at all. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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