Being Present

Laura Digan April 23, 2025 3 4

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John 15: 12-17 (NIVUK)

12 My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: love each other.

I will admit I am a rubbish friend. I don’t say this flippantly, I really am. In the busyness of life it is my friendships that always suffer. I think it is because I am a results driven person, so I am focused on whatever task needs to be attended to; to achieve. This was a valued trait within the corporate world. And within ministry and family life there are so many tasks that seem to need my attention! 

But nurturing friendship, being present for others, loving others is a command given by Jesus. In John 15 verse 12 Jesus says, ‘My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.’ He goes on to say in verse 14, ‘You are my friends if you do what I command.’

I keep saying that being a minister is lonely but it isn’t meant to be. In Jesus’ command to love one another, he commands us to be present, to nurture and encourage each other. 

Let us take this command seriously friends. Jesus was so serious about this command that he died for his friends, he died for us. So let us make time for our friendships. Let us set aside the tasks in order to be present, to laugh, to cry with each other. Perhaps reach out to an old friend who you haven’t spoken to in a while. 

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, 

What a friend we have in you

You bore all our sins

You bear all our pain

Draw us closer to you through prayer

And help us to be present for each other 

Just like you are always present for us

Amen