In the famous play Waiting for Godot, two characters spend the entire play waiting for someone who never arrives. Amazingly, the playwright made a lot of money out of a play in which nothing really happens.

Waiting is one of the hardest things we do. Most of us have been spending far more time than we wanted to waiting in line to get into stores whose capacity has been limited. Our daughter Sarah has been waiting for travel restrictions to ease so that she can be reunited with her fiancé Jacob, who lives in the UK, and somehow have a wedding ceremony with at least some family members present. Several of our friends have been waiting for cancer treatment. All of us have been waiting for the public health emergency to pass.

How do we face fear and overcome it?

That was the question of the day in our morning coffee time, and as always, Elaine had my back pressed to the Biblical wall by the time we had finished.

Over many years of counselling, I have come to the conclusion that all of us struggle tangibly with fear. And that is important to know, because many people are under the delusion that there is a class of super Christians out there who float several inches above the ground and never give fear the time of day.

Like most of you, my world was turned upside down a few weeks ago. And like many of you, I started living in a different world instead.

The world of electronic communication suddenly became the platform for my communication with the outside world.

At the beginning, it seemed like a temporary substitute — something to tide me over until I got to the other side. Then it seemed to take on a life of its own. I was preaching online, I was speaking to small groups online, I was doing eschatology sessions every week on Instagram Live, I was on Zoom panels every week for our church, I was speaking on Messenger Video to people all over the world.

We have all learned by now to expect the unexpected. But the bigger question is the unexpected that will come out of the unexpected.

When something comes out of the blue and disrupts life, it has two main effects. The first is the immediate disruption. The second is the change that flows from that disruption.

It happened right in the middle of an online presentation on eschatology. A young man in the military stationed in Europe asked a question about deliverance ministry. I’m still not sure where in the context of the conversation it came from. I answered as best I could, and contacted him later to set up a time to talk.