Guest Speaker: Taylor Johnson - "Anxiety and Fear"

Redemption Church KC Sermon Podcast

1. In his sermon about the story of Hagar in Genesis 16, Dr. Taylor Johnson talked about the difference between anxiety and fear.
Of anxiety, he said, “Anxiety is a response to a potential threat that may or may not occur at some point in the future.” He also noted that anxiety gets its power from the unknown, and that we often try to give ourselves a sense of control by predicting the future - even though the accuracy rates for our predictions are abysmal.
What are some examples from your own past? Share about a time in which the unknown and its accompanying anxiety drove you to try to figure out the future. How accurate were your predictions? In retrospect, how do you feel about the energy you invested into making them, considering them, and carrying anxiety about them?
When you’ve done this type of predicting to try to gain a sense of control, has it worked? Has it helped? What are other ways you might have tried to create a sense of control? And are they any more or less helpful in the long run?
2. Taylor also taught about the concept of liminal space, using Richard Rohr’s words as a definition: “liminal space is where we are both betwixt and between the familiar and the completely unknown. There alone is our old world left behind, while we are not yet sure of the new existence.”
Taylor talked about the liminal spaces in which Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar all most likely suffered.
Think about, and if you’re willing, share about a liminal space in which you have found or presently do find yourself. What was/is your experience of that space? (And it can be a liminal space of any significance, size or importance; there’s no need to compare your experience to Abraham’s, Sarah’s, Hagar’s or anyone else’s).
Are there things that made or make it less bearable? More bearable? Do you feel able to consider your own liminal experiences and discomfort in light of the compassion and curiosity Taylor talked about? Are you able to access compassion & curiosity when it comes to the liminal spaces of others? Is that easier or harder? Why?
3. Dr. Johnson spent some time re-narrating the stories of Abraham, Sarah, & Hagar - all with an emphasis on highlighting the pain they each must have experienced in their own liminal spaces.
What’s it like for you to reconsider these stories in this way? How does it impact your feelings about these stories? These people? Your own journeys through life and liminal spaces? God?
What are you learning or reflecting on bevause of the stories of these three people after and because of Taylor’s sermon today?