Week 1: Introduction — The Weapons of Mass Anxiety

1.Lucado opens by describing anxiety as one of the great plagues of modern life, citing statistics about how many people suffer from anxiety disorders. Were you surprised by the scope of the problem he describes? How would you have described your own relationship with anxiety before picking up this book?

2.Lucado makes a careful distinction between anxiety as a diagnosable medical condition and anxiety as a spiritual struggle — and insists both are real and both matter. Why is it important not to collapse these two categories into one? How might ignoring either one do harm to a person who is struggling?

3.The book is organized around the acronym CALM, drawn from Philippians 4:4–8. In your own words, what are the four movements of CALM before you've read the full book?

4.Lucado points out that Paul wrote Philippians — one of the most joy-filled letters in the New Testament — from a Roman prison cell. What does it mean for your own faith that the command 'Be anxious for nothing' comes from a man in chains, not from someone with a comfortable, problem-free life?

5.Lucado writes that anxiety is not a sin but that it can become a dwelling place — somewhere we move into and live, rather than a feeling we pass through. Do you agree with that distinction? Where do you tend to 'move in' to worry rather than passing through it?

6.What is one honest thing this introduction surfaced in you — a fear, a habit, a question — that you want to bring into this study? If you are in a group, consider sharing it as an act of trust.

7.How does the promise of 'the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding' (Philippians 4:7) differ from the kind of peace the world typically offers — the peace of resolved circumstances, controlled outcomes, or managed risk?