There is a particular kind of fear that can arise when we are waiting for medical results, attending an appointment, or noticing a change in our body that we cannot explain.
The mind begins to move ahead of us.
“What if it is serious?”
“What if my life is about to change?”
“What will happen to my family?”
“What if I cannot cope?”
Before any diagnosis has been given, we may already be living through the worst possible outcome in our imagination. Fear can make the future feel immediate, as though something terrible has already happened.
Waiting for health news can leave us feeling powerless. There may be nothing we can do except attend the appointment, take the tests and wait for someone else to give us information that could affect our lives.
For many people, uncertainty is more difficult than certainty. The mind tries to fill the gap, often with frightening possibilities. We may repeatedly search symptoms online, examine our bodies, seek reassurance from others or avoid thinking about the situation altogether.
These responses are understandable. They are attempts to regain a sense of control when life feels uncertain.
Yet they can also intensify our anxiety. The more we search for certainty, the more aware we become that complete certainty is rarely available.
Christians may sometimes feel guilty for being afraid.
We may believe that strong faith should protect us from anxiety, or that fear means we are not trusting God enough. We may feel pressure to appear calm, hopeful and spiritually confident even when we are deeply frightened.
But fear is not evidence that our faith has failed.
Throughout Scripture, people of faith experienced fear, grief, uncertainty and anguish. The Psalms are filled with honest prayers from people who felt overwhelmed and afraid. Jesus himself experienced deep distress in the Garden of Gethsemane as he faced suffering and death.
Christian faith does not require us to deny the reality of fear. It gives us a place in which fear can be spoken.
Prayer does not always remove anxiety immediately. Sometimes prayer is simply the act of bringing our frightened and uncertain selves into the presence of God.
We may not be able to say, “I am not afraid.”
But we may be able to pray, “God, I am afraid. Please remain with me.”
The fear of bad health news is rarely only about illness.
It may also be about losing independence, becoming a burden, experiencing pain, leaving loved ones behind or facing our own mortality.
For some, medical settings awaken earlier experiences of illness, bereavement or trauma. A person who has watched someone they love become seriously unwell may fear that the same story is about to happen to them.
Others may be afraid of not being believed, of losing control over their treatment or of having to depend on other people.
It can be helpful to ask gently:
“What am I most afraid this news might mean?”
Naming the deeper fear does not make it disappear, but it can help us understand what we are carrying.
Fear often pulls us into an imagined future.
We begin living mentally in a diagnosis that has not been made, a treatment that has not been prescribed or an outcome that has not occurred.
Returning to the present does not mean ignoring the situation. It means recognising what is true today.
Today, perhaps, you are waiting.
Today, you may not yet know the result.
Today, you may have people who care about you.
Today, you can breathe, pray, rest and take the next necessary step.
Jesus taught his followers not to carry tomorrow’s troubles before tomorrow arrives. This is not a criticism of anxious people. It is an invitation to receive grace in smaller portions.
We are not always given strength for every possible future at once. Often, we are given enough strength for the next appointment, the next conversation or the next day.
Health anxiety can become very isolating. We may keep our fear to ourselves because we do not want to worry others or because speaking about it makes the possibility feel more real.
Yet fear often becomes heavier when it is carried alone.
Speaking with a trusted friend, family member, pastor or counsellor can create space to express thoughts that may feel too difficult to hold privately. It may also help to take someone with you to an important medical appointment, particularly if you are worried that anxiety will make it difficult to absorb information.
Christian community is not only about celebrating answered prayers. It is also about accompanying one another through waiting, uncertainty and difficult news.
We may not be able to remove another person’s fear, but we can sit beside them within it.
Christian hope is not the same as assuming that everything will turn out exactly as we wish.
Sometimes results are reassuring. Sometimes they lead to further tests. Sometimes difficult news is received.
Hope does not require us to pretend that suffering is impossible. It rests in the belief that whatever we face, we will not face it entirely alone.
God’s presence does not always appear as a dramatic sense of peace. It may be found through the skill of a doctor, the care of a nurse, the companionship of a friend, the wisdom of a counsellor or the strength to take one more step.
Faith may not answer every question about what will happen.
It may instead remind us that our lives remain held by God, even when the future feels uncertain.
Lord,
you know the fears I find difficult to speak.
You know the possibilities my mind keeps imagining
and the questions I cannot yet answer.
Help me not to live tomorrow’s pain before tomorrow comes.
Give me courage for the next step,
wisdom to seek the help I need
and grace to accept the support of others.
Remain with me in the waiting,
in the appointment,
in the uncertainty
and in whatever news I may receive.
When I cannot feel strong,
remind me that I do not have to carry this alone.
Amen.
Deep, thoughtful, emotionally mature Christian psychotherapy with pastoral insight
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