Practically speaking, what do these words of St. Paul mean?

"We are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."

Here is my take - a distinction between materialism and spirituality:

Recently, while hiking in the wilderness, I observed some young passer-bys earnestly trying to arrange their masks, nervously obeying six feet of social distancing in the name of COVID. It reminded me how, as a child, I was taught to believe it a dangerous offense to go swimming within an hour of eating. It was and is believed that science dictates these things.

The trend today is away from religion towards spirituality. "There's many people who don't identify with any particular religious denomination or any particular religion. These are people who may call themselves spiritual rather than religious." (Roger Payne, UNC) It has taken almost 150 years, but perhaps the Christian world is ready for the clarity and power of Science and Health:

Spirituality is the only Christianity; and its basis is, “to be absent from the body and present with the Lord;” sensuality is personality ever present with the body. We have already sufficient professions of goodness without the Spirit: too many religions and not enough Christianity is the genius of the age. Man knows already too well how “to make long prayers, to be heard for his much speaking,” and to enlarge the Pharisaical borders, to steal in private and give in public, but this is political, not Christian economy. What we want is, “Christ and Him crucified,” in other words, Truth and the cross-bearing that attends it, to make mankind better. - 1st Ed. S&H

There is no dogma, no ritualistic taint in this - just the practical message of the Christ.

We typically think of progress as the accrual of knowledge, skill, assets, or perhaps being a better person, but spiritual progress is totally different. Spiritual progress involves dropping earth-weights, those things that the world smiles upon, but are baggage that impede our journey upward. It is not about trying to improve ourselves, as such, but rather it is about relinquishing “pride of life” and being more able to discern our spiritual nature, to get out of God’s way, exemplified by Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemani: “ O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.“

St. Paul puts it this way: “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

The popular Christian promise of praying sincerely to get what you want is a terrible perversion for it would make God the servant of man! The one who practices this successfully is in danger of building a chasm between himself and the divine, thinking he is something when he is nothing, for it is certainly not God who bestows success in the world at the cost of one’s soul, one’s ability to “be absent from the body and be present with the Lord.” (St. Paul)

Spiritual progress is concomitant to following Christ, a perpetual demand that has nothing to do with dying out of the flesh:
“Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of mortal man, through which the mortal is dropped for the immortal... Nothing sensual or sinful is immortal. The death of a false material sense and of sin, not the death of organic matter, is what reveals man and Life, harmonious, real, and eternal.” S&H

Why is it that so many today feel comfortable identifying themselves with spirituality rather than religion? This question is particularly relevant for those concerned about the diminishing presence and influence of Christianity in the Western world.

"Humility is the door, honesty is the way, and spirituality is the summit." (MBE in CCT, Eustace)