God has made me to be and meant me to exercise the discipline of being present with others. This gift makes me a good physician and a good spiritual director. I once had a patient tell me "I know you have many patients that you care for, but when you are here with me, I feel like I am your only patient."
The position of priority of focus adds more worth to a person in most instances than the gift of a year's salary. To be present with someone is more than being in the same physical environment. As noted by Charles Ringma (Seek the Silences), to be present to another person can only flow out of love which results in the ability to communicate, listen, join, and share.
To be present means I must set aside my cares and concerns, and in order to do this, I must have a place to leave these important things. This is where my own journey of faith and trust meets with ministry. I cannot be fully engaged in the present moment with another person unless the distractions of my world have been released. I cannot hear another's story with openness to them and to God unless I have quieted the noise of my own internal voice that tends to be filled with self-centered and self-focused chatter. I cannot feel the pain and hurt of another. In fact, I am not even given access to these deeper places of another until I allow my self-protecting walls to be destroyed by sufficient love making me willing to enter in with vulnerability to places of pain and need.
Being present also means that I release my agendas for both my own and the other person's transformation. Only by surrendering this larger work that really only God can do am I free to be in the moment, and it is in the present moment that I allow the other person to be who they are without rushed intrusion. In love, I honor them and the level of unveiling that they offer but also the level of remaining hidden that preserves the sacred place of the other person's being.
Being present is important to me living my calling here and now, but it is essential for any future ministry particularly in the context of community. Additionally, it is only by being present to Jesus that any of the above can happen recognizing his choice by the Spirit to be fully present to me (and to you) with each breath I take.
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