We do not lose heart, Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4, though the outer self wastes away. Is it foolish to keep fixing the porch when the whole house sinks?

Something is falling apart — the body, the day, all of it. We are not exempt. Paul says the weakness was the plan: the treasure is carried in jars of clay so the power belongs to God, not to us. The holding that keeps us was never ours to do.