Nobody likes surgery. It is scary, and it involves pain. But when you have a life-threatening infection, surgery is the only thing that will save you. The surgeon cuts you not to hurt you, but to heal you. God’s Word is like that scalpel. It is sharp. It cuts through our excuses, our rationalizations, and the lies we tell ourselves. It exposes the infection underneath—the resentment, the fear, the selfishness—so that it can be removed. This is why we need a searching and fearless moral inventory. We have to be willing to lay on the operating table and let the Word examine us. We respect the autonomy of others by keeping our eyes on our own chart, focusing on our own hearts, not the faults of our neighbors or family members. Don’t be afraid of what the Bible or your inventory reveals about you. God doesn’t show you your sin to shame you; He shows it to you so He can extract it. The pain of the conviction is just the first step toward the relief of the cure. | 
