Christ’s story is entirely about suffering and sacrifice. Having a short life was not as important to Jesus as having a meaningful life.

This is reflected in many religious traditions which, for a Reform Unitarian, is confirmation. People around the world seeking spiritual truth have discovered the same truth. For example, the central Buddhist tenet that life is suffering. Even in pagan Caucasian religion, the High God gave ancient heroes the choice between living a short life and great renown or having a life of ease, great numbers, and never knowing struggle; the heroes chose the former.

True plenty is in struggle and sacrifice, not in the ease of having everything provided for you. “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts of the Apostles 20:35) as Paul recounted of Christ’s teaching. In keeping with Jesus’s consistent teaching that the spiritual and material are to be kept distinct, this doesn’t mean to reject love, but only to reject material help. One should accept loving gestures (like the washing of feet, which Jesus accepted) but not material help (Peter’s sword, which Jesus rebuked) unless at the utmost need.

To accept material help except at the utmost need is to selfishly drain the resources of another and to weaken one’s own soul. It rejects the central spiritual truth that life is suffering, sacrifice, and risk.

Practically, this means to reject interventions except when it threatens your functionality in the world. Thus, to take a painkiller just to avoid a headache is immoral. But, to take a painkiller when the pain interferes with being present for your loved ones is acceptable. In general, it means that treatment is morally preferable to prevention except only when the risk to your functionality is absolute.

So, it is important to remember your truest function, your ultimate purpose, your calling. Jesus himself, on Garden Thursday, requested an intervention when he prayed, “Take this cup from me.” But, remembering his greater calling, he qualified this by saying, “Nevertheless, Thy will be done.” One might be tempted to accept material aid when not necessary, as Jesus was both in the wilderness and at Gethsemane, but the moral choice is to face the suffering, the sacrifice, and the risk.

To accept material intervention to avoid potential suffering, possible sacrifice, and minimal risk … this is a soul-weakening rejection of the highest spiritual truths about life.

A true Christian, a good person of any belief, must accept that suffering, sacrifice, and risk are not only part of life, they are key to having purpose.