By Andy Stanley

High cholesterol, triglycerides, and hypertension-all well-known foes wreaking havoc in the human heart. But as devastating as these can be, there are four other enemies of the heart that can’t be measured in a doctor’s office. Big pharmaceutical has nothing to touch them and they wreak havoc on young and old alike.

They’re the four primary enemies of the heart-four life-blocking agents that become lodged in the heart, poisoning our relationships, our faith, and our character. These corrosive forces gain strength from the darkness. Secrecy is their greatest ally. Left to their own, they grow in power and influence, like a lab experiment gone terribly wrong.

But as we’ll discover, these forces lose their power when exposed to light. Like roaches that scatter at the flick of a switch, so these four enemies of the heart dissipate when exposed to the light of truth.

Here they are:
• Guilt
• Anger
• Greed
• Jealousy

Not the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse you expected? I assure you that practically every conflict and relational wound you’ve experienced can be traced back to one of these four.

Each of the four foes on this list is fueled by a single dynamic, and it’s this dynamic that makes each so problematic. Understanding this dynamic is the first step to rendering each of these monsters powerless in your life.

Guilt, anger, greed, jealousy-each results in a debt-to-debtor dynamic that always causes an imbalance in any relationship. If you owe someone money, or vice versa, you know this to be the case. No matter what else is going on at the moment, the debt is always in the room with you.

As a pastor, I can’t count the number of times this dynamic has played out in my office. A couple or a parent or a child has poured out their hearts with whatever the presenting issue might be. And when the story is finished, it’s like a joke with no punch line. And everything in me wants to say, “I don’t get it.” That is, based on what you just told me, I don’t know why we’re here. And then after careful poking and prodding (sometimes not so careful the older I get), at last the debt is revealed: “She took this… He owes me that… God should never have taken….” And the debt that walked into the room with them is finally brought out into the open. And the dysfunctional dynamics that describe their situation all make sense. This is the power of debt.

Although the person owed generally has the upper hand in the relationship, the reverse can be true as well. If you’ve ever been in a situation where someone owed you money and refused to pay, you know that the person owed can feel as powerless and as put upon as a person who’s in debt. It all depends upon the personalities (and the arrogance) of those involved. Either way, things aren’t even. Someone has the upper hand. There’s an imbalance. Unbalanced power in a dysfunctional relationship is a recipe for disaster.

If we’re talking about an overdue debt, one that’s unlikely to be paid anytime soon, then the tension rises. Even when everybody in the room is trying to keep a level head and talk about something else entirely, there’s a negative vibe that characterizes the interaction.

We are a society that has learned-or at least thinks it has learned-to live with debt. The average household carries thousands of dollars of debt on credit cards. We “rent to own,” we lease, and we buy things with no money down, no interest, and no payments for months and months. We’ve learned to live as if we are paid in full, all the while carrying massive amounts of debt. And while we can get away with this financially (for a while anyway), emotional and relational debt accrues interest at a staggering rate. Dysfunction and tension compound daily until the weight of the debt makes Washington, DC, look fiscally responsible.

There are only two ways to resolve this kind of tension: Either somebody has to pay up, or somebody has to cancel the debt. As long as the debt is unpaid or unforgiven, the debt governs the relationship. It becomes a filter for everything.

To look closer at the four enemies and how to combat each, read Enemies of the Heart by Andy Stanley.