Rare Air

"Air" between BNA & IAH en route to Brazil w/ JMI

Occupying “rare air?” How common or how “rare” [see what I did there] is that idiom in your everyday vernacular? It may be one you use or hear often, but I think it’s a funny phrase. My pal Jason is really the only person in my life I can cite using it at all. I know it’s descriptive and suggestive and probably self-explanatory, but somehow, it’s one I needed to look up just to verify that I understood it properly and used it correctly.

According to Ember, my ChatGPT assistant [free version], the phrase means, “to be in an elite, uncommon group—a level of achievement or status that very few people ever reach.”

Examples, courtesy of Ember, ranged from athletes to actors to entrepreneurs. There are always those in certain categories who are regarded as the best of the best, top of their field, elite among the even more elite. 

So, naturally, when I thought of the clearest “rare air” elite, I thought of the New Testament men and women Paul cites in his letters. You went straight to scripture, too, right?

One of the better examples is Timothy. Here’s how Paul describes him.

Philippians 2:19-24 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.

And for further validity of the emboldened phrase above, let’s include Philippians 2:2-4 as well.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Let me take a quick sidestep into the world of child-rearing for just a moment. The Allen kids are [as of today] 19, 18, and 13 years old. While we are far from done, we didn’t leave the maternity wing yesterday. Nearly two decades into this journey, I can confidently say that I spend more than twice as much energy reminding my kids of the things they neglect to do as I do reminding them of the things they never forget. Make sense? Maybe a broad assumption, but the volume of scriptures [including our New Testament epistles and the red-letter words of Jesus] spent reminding people to care for the poor, sick, vulnerable, and forgotten is a pretty clear indicator that people were far from successful and self-sufficient at caring well for the poor, sick, vulnerable, and forgotten.

Back to Paul. Here’s our boy with a widening network of churches full of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers [men and women alike…alas another blog for another day], essentially a growing group of leaders in his arsenal. Yet, he has no one like Timothy he could confidently declare would be genuinely concerned for the welfare of the Philippian church. 

I don’t for one second assume that Paul’s other ministerial companions were short on compassion, only that Timothy somehow occupied a unique level of rare air. His was an elite, uncommon level of care. I’m not curious as to why all this ended up in one chapter of one letter from Paul, either. The part about thinking less of oneself and the part about esteeming others’ welfare so highly. It’s the same today as it must have been back then. 

Truly caring more about others is so rare because thinking too highly of ourselves is so common.

What if the key to being selfless really is to simply think of yourself less?

These days, you don’t have to look hard to find believers on opposite sides of many points along the spectrum. And the more you observe their attitudes toward one another, you find varying degrees of selective submission [which parts of scripture matter the most to said subset of believers]. 

People tend to willingly submit to [and aggressively enforce] God's authority over some things while ignoring completely his commands towards others.

And, when we zero in on a group of believers who have honed in on God’s heart as it relates to a particular issue, they are generally happy to engage in pretty minute selective outrage towards anyone from the lost and dying world OR the believers on the other side of the fence who don’t share their particular passion. 

Let’s head back to Paul, only with a detour to see Jesus, first. 

The Father to the sheep in Matthew 25:

• I was hungry and you fed me,

• I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,

• I was homeless and you gave me a room,

• I was shivering and you gave me clothes,

• I was sick and you stopped to visit,

• I was in prison and you came to me.

The Father to the goats in that same passage:

• I was hungry and you gave me no meal,

• I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,

• I was homeless and you gave me no bed,

• I was shivering and you gave me no clothes,

• Sick and in prison, and you never visited.’

Jesus was clear. Whatever we prioritized in acts of service and compassion for those who were too often last and least, we were ultimately serving Christ. Whatever we ignored in acts of service and compassion for those in such desperate straits, we were ultimately dishonoring Christ. 

Paul just so eloquently and succinctly boils it down. Serve first. Treat others better. 

Paul said, “Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.” ~Philippians 2:3-4 [The Message this time]

Serving the “least of these” wasn't supposed to come from the “least of us.” 

What we need more than ever is believers who will occupy air that was never supposed to be rare but ultimately meant to the be rule or standard to which we all strive. If ever we are to err when selecting air, let it be as one who serves. If we're gonna be selective, let's make it toward service...toward sacrifice...toward submission.

May we be among those of whom others would say…there’s just nobody like him or her. They compassionately and humbly and most of all, constantly, put the needs of others…first.