so it is also by God’s grace that Paul can endure hardships and suffering. The grace that God gave him has not been without effect. Through it Paul has been admirably, heroically strong. Paul is convinced that in the midst of his weakness God’s extraordinary power and the life of the risen Jesus are made visible in him (cf. 4:7–11 and 16; and 6:8–11). Nonetheless, one may assert that Paul does not like to boast of that mysterious reality; boasting makes him uneasy. He realizes that such boasting