Emotional Cholesterol Removal

Pictured is the Northwest Nazarene University basketball team, currently 8-1. We enjoyed hosting them at our house for a Mexican-theme dinner.


In our last posts we saw the importance of allowing God to examine us, revealing anything in us that displeases Him - that which would be destructive to ourselves. Let’s reflect more on the topic from an emotional cholesterol metaphor.


Heart attack! Scarey words. Frightening diagnosis. Though the attack is surprisingly sudden, the problem has been there for some time. It is usually a build-up of cholesterol, clogging the arteries that impedes blood flow. Genetics, certain foods, stress and injury are some of the root problems.


In like manner, emotional cholesterol builds up over the course of our lives when emotional injury is not faced and healthfully processed. Single wounds are often handled efficiently, however multiple wounds without resolution causes an emotional cholesterol build-up that produces a mirade of “attacks”: psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, relational dysfunction, ailments of the body, soul and spirit and more.

Though this blog is not a counseling hot line, it may be helpful to you, dear reader, to consider the following exercise.
1. What one incident in your life has caused the greatest pain? Write it. Just the facts. What happened?

2. What were the results? What did that painful situation or person do to you?



3. Now list out a number of painful incidents in your life. Just the facts. For example, sexual, physical or emotional abuse, ramifications of divorce, abandonment issues, betrayal, death, unfair treatment, your own foolish decisions. Write what could be the result of the buildup of all this emotional cholesterol.

4. Is there a known sin in your life? Others have hurt us for which we need honesty as to our response, so not to hide it or do the opposite, blame them. But we also need to be honest about how we’ve hurt ourselves and others by nurturing some sinful pattern. Is there a sin that needs to be repented of and broken? Porn, bitterness, laziness, rebellion…

Ignorance is not bliss. Time doesn’t heal – either with physical or emotional cholesterol. A game plan for healing must be designed. Therapeutic emotional angioplasty must relinquish to the knife of THE Surgeon.

If you decide to involve yourself in this exercise, have a good friend, wise and trusted, walk through this with you. Or if something seriously devastating surfaces, it would be wise to avail the services of a competent Christian counselor.