St Paul's "sting" is with him always. He has met the risen Lord on the road to Damascus. He has been taken into the seventh heaven of mystical experience. He has been saved by God from multiple dangers; even from shipwreck. He knows that his work is bearing fruit and that his Churches respond to his chiding at their backsliding. He knows that the Holy Spirit has brought him to an understanding of the Body of Christ that is the Church. One thing is sure of Paul is that he did great things for us all through his dedication to God; he never claims these fruits of his life for himself but it is always God's work that he acknowledges. But he still has a "sting"

Jesus the Son of the Trinity's  teaching amazes his neighbours and relations. He had not spent years in the school of a learned Rabi as had St Paul. Jesus is a bolt from the blue. His teaching is so complete that his hearers are totally baffled. So baffled that they dismiss it for how can such scholarly erudition be from the mouth of a woodworker who was at their beck and call whenever some building work was needed. Even the curing of the sick was from the laying on of hands and not seen as a miracle of God. St Paul had his "sting" and Jesus will undergo the attack of Satan face to face and will withstand it . Although St Paul wishes to rid himself of his sting he can welcome it as it in his weakness that he can know the power of God working within him.

Dear Lord, you know all my sinfulness; you know that I have cooperated with temptation to disobey your will for my being. Let me accept your grace in all its fulness to eliminate sin from my life. At this moment I know that it is possible; let that possibility become a certainty as this day unfolds.