2 Corinthians 4:7-12: in context

Paul has been describing the glory of the gospel he carries, and now he sets it against the frailty of the people who carry it. We have this treasure in jars of clay, he says, so that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. Then a series of paired phrases that map the Christian life: pressed on every side but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. He describes carrying in his own body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus might be shown in him.

The image of treasure in clay jars is the key. Ordinary pottery, cheap, breakable, unimpressive, is exactly the right container for God's glory, because when the light shines out through the cracks, everyone can see the power is the treasure's and not the jar's. Paul is saying his own weakness and battering are not a contradiction of the gospel but the very way it shows. Look at his four pairs: each names a real blow, pressed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down, and each names a limit God sets, not crushed, not despairing, not abandoned, not destroyed. He does not claim to be spared the hardship; he claims to be held inside it. And the deepest logic is that the dying is doing something: as he carries the death of Jesus in his body, the life of Jesus becomes visible through him, so that death works in him and life reaches others. The cracks in the jar are where the light gets out.

Do I resent my own weakness and the blows I take, or can I believe with Paul that the clay jar is cracked precisely so the treasure's light can shine through?