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?