The Difficulty in Humility - Sarah Jackson

September 17 2017
  In The Phenomenology of Prayer, Merold Westphal explains that to to truly pray, we must de-center ourselves. When I was little, my parents gave me a formula on how I should pray. I would thank God for that day, ask us to bless my family, and to “give me sweet dreams so I could wake up and have a good day tomorrow. Amen”. I never actually praised God by de-centering myself and listening to what he had to say. How exactly do we dethrone ourselves?
  Westphal explains that people need to think less about how God can help them with future endeavors and more on what he has already done. People should pray with disinterested delight, praying for the sake of praising God. To truly pray, I needed to thank him rather than set the expectations I had for the next day. De-centering oneself is difficult. I have trouble doing it because, even if I’d pray just to praise God, I can feel the demands piling up in the back of my head. Through this book I’ve learned that I have to kick those thoughts aside. Even with a guide, it is still a difficult way of thinking. Westphal calls it “the task of a lifetime” because for each person, making the world not about oneself crushes the ego (Westphal 31). Now that I am older, I have to start giving back what I took what I was little.

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