Does a Bigger Girth Give You More of Jesus?

You can read in 2 Corinthians 4:8:  we are pressed on every side, yet not straitened (crushed, distressed); perplexed, yet not unto despair; (ASV)

Two of the dictionary definitions for pressed are “to act upon with steady applied weight or force,” and “to compress or squeeze, as to alter in weight or size.”

What happens to you when you’re pressed, compressed or squeezed, or acted upon with steady applied force?

I know what I do: I eat, altering in weight and size. During my mom’s last sickness, death, and the clearing out of her house, I gained 20 lbs. and just the other day I heard someone say her daughter was my height.  She said it as I stood a couple of feet from her daughter looking over her daughter’s head.  So I must have gained some height, also.  How does that happen?

The Bible passage goes on to say that we always carry around Christ’s death in our bodies, so the life of Jesus may be revealed in those same bodies.

It sure doesn’t seem like my weight and size alteration from stress eating is what Paul meant when he wrote that passage.  Changing the size of the container does not allow more Jesus into my life.  But perhaps the long struggle I now face to regain a normal size for me is what will reveal the life of Jesus.  I sure hope there’s an upside to all of this.

What do you think?  How do our struggles reveal the life of Jesus in our bodies?