“Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me” (II Corinthians 12:8-9).  Just prior to this passage, Paul was reminding the Corinthians that Christ become poor so that we might become rich.  That is both a statement and an invitation to join Jesus in letting go in order to find.  Here we see the same idea in a different form.  Nobody knows exactly what Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was.  Some say a physical impairment; others a spiritual issue (perhaps an ongoing sense of guilt for having persecuted the early Christians).  Whatever the issue, it was something that debilitated him and so he prayed for its removal.  His prayer was answered but not in the way he asked.  His prayer was answered in that Christ showed him that he could work through Paul’s weakness in order to manifest God’s power.  Do you have anything in your life like that?  Something that holds you back, be it a physical or a spiritual issue?  Don’t ever despair.  Christ can do mighty things even (and perhaps, especially) through our weaknesses and problems.  Because, of course, it never really is about either our strengths or our weaknesses, is it?  What a mighty God we serve!