“May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had.” Romans 15:5

I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. I already knew that an octogenarian is someone living in their 80’s. A quinquagenarianis a person living in their 50’s. So I figured that ‘genarian’ must mean ‘a PERSON!’ The prefix just gives their age. But thinking about my friend, and then later, hearing her over the phone, I was upset at the implication. By definition, anonagenarian is a person living in their 90s!”

I had ‘felt’ God’s ‘nudge,’ just as if it had been a physical point of finger into the side of my head. I had not been thinking about anything related to her… but I felt it. “Give her a call,” God said. Trying to finish reading a page, I felt God press… “NOW!” So I dialed her number. She was distraught, tearfully saying goodbye to her northbound daughter. Barely able to talk, she asked me to call her tomorrow.

After hanging up, a Christian brother and sister, octogenarian friends of mine, popped into my head. So I called them. Leaving a message for ‘Bro,’ he called me back later in the day. We BOTH felt refreshed for catching up, remembering that the coming ‘Heavenly Earth’ will mean NO goodbyes. At church, I was glad to see another friend.  He had just entered the mourning process for his dad.

But I’m still upset about the word nonagenarian!Looking up the Latin, I discovered that ‘nona’ means 9. But ‘non’ today more frequently means ‘NON’ or ‘NONE!’ Like NOT a person! That bothered me, which got me busy calling and seeing my friends. Because, ‘I’m nona gonna let MY friends feel left out… because I DO care! Which is EXACTLY what Jesus wants and expects from me!

Are YOU giving encouragement, love, comfort and help with and for other people’s endurance? If you have been THROUGH the receiving end of comfort, can you remember how it felt and become a DOER of God’s Word? Who do YOU know that you can reach out to… today to cheer on or up? Today… I need and want to make a phone call myself!