When Infection is a good thing

I have splinters in two of my fingers. At the Turkey Trot I washed my hands off with water from my water bottle and then drug them through the grass to dry them. In a sand burr patch. Been pulling stickers out ever since. I still have two. I can't find the entrance to dig them out. I've been trying with no luck. My fingers hurt. They are swollen and red. But I can't see the pockets of infection under the skin...yet. I know it's coming. Earlier this week I had one splinter that I could see the infection around and so I pricked it and when I squeezed the sticker came out with the infection. I'm waiting for the next two.
In my Bible study this week I realized I have seen this happen in my Christian life. I get a "splinter". Bitterness, lust, greed, selfishness, discontentment. And if not removed immediately, however painful it is, it worms its way in deeper and deeper. But these emotions, like my splinter, are harmful, and they have bad results in my spiritual life, just like the splinter does in my finger. I can put topical medicine on them, a smile, a have a good day, band aid it even, but it doesn't get the source of the problem. Right now, I'm soaking my finger every day a couple of times in epsom salts because the doctor's office says this will bring the splinters to the surface so I can pull them out.
This is what I need to do with these spiritual splinters. Soak them out with the truth of God's Word. Dig into them with a needle and tweezers and dig the sticker out. Poke the infection and squeeze every bit of the infection as well as the splinter out of my body. Recently I've had one of these splinters worming it's way under the surface. But fortunately, God gave me this little object lesson and brought it to mind before I completely let it get absorbed under my skin. Because God is cool like that. He will leave use something as simple (and painful) as a sand burr to get my attention. And I won't even tell you the events that happened to get me to stick my hand in the sand burr patch. But God can make you uncomfortable to get your attention. And it can hurt. And humiliate. And free you.