The Ministry of Presence

A friend of mine, Paul Sparks, recently brought a Henri Nouwen quote to my attention here.

For those of you who aren't link people:

“More and more, the desire grows in me simply to walk around, greet people, enter their homes, sit on their doorsteps, play ball, throw water, and be known as someone who wants to live with them. It is a privilege to have the time to practice this simple ministry of presence. Still, it is not as simple as it seems.

My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups, and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets. It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause, and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress. But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn’t be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them, but truly love them.”

– Henri Nouwen

In beginning this blog, I wrote a bit about this deeper yearning within myself that I felt was well expressed in The Catcher in the Rye:

“The mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.”

-Wilhelm Stekel

Maybe it is God speaking simply to me, and not to everyone, but it seems to me that so much about life in the way of Jesus returns to the spiritual practice (or more honestly, the way of life): being present.   How often I dwell either in the past, and berate myself for the causes I didn't live for fully.   How often I think towards the future, and occupy my present with meetings, conferences, study groups, and workshops - dying to now to make some social progress for tomorrow.

May I one day be marked the mature man by living humbly for the kingdom by being present.

- Andrew