All for a good cause?

I have often been accused of over-thinking a situation. This may well be another one of those times, but this is something I’ve been (over) thinking about recently….

In the church, and especially in small groups, we often meet newcomers who have a lot of material needs. Some of them have just recently fallen on hard times. Others have a long history of calamity.

How sympathetic I am to their situation (and how willing I am to help) is very much tied to which of these groups they fall in to. If they seem to be reasonable people who’ve had bad luck then I generally feel happy to help if I can. If I talk to them and hear about a string of bad decisions (still to be recognised as such) then my alarm bells start ringing and the barriers come up.

Is it our place to judge people in this way? God calls us to help someone in need, but should that help ever be conditional on the recipient having sound judgement? If not, then how can we be sure that our provision for them will really help? 

There is more I could say, but I don’t want to be accused of over-writing as well as over thinking, so I’ll just let you, my fellow Saints and friends, straighten me out.

Philomena

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Comments

[John]

I would characterize the issue as “How can I best help this person?” If the person has a history of falling into need because of his bad judgment, perhaps his biggest need is to be steered away from the ease of making bad judgments. Tough love might be the appropriate remedy. Helping out with what appears to be a person's most immediate need may in fact be nothing more than facilitating bad habits.

In evaluating this approach, I’m tempted to say to myself that I’m only justifying my natural desire to avoid the effort of helping others. It’s certainly true that tough love in many situations would be more convenient than providing material assistance. On the other hand, I don’t want to choose a response simply because it’s the one that inconveniences me the most (and makes me look like a martyr). To my mind the decision to be made is what’s the best thing I’m able to do for this person at the moment. And in some cases the best response might be not to provide an easy handout.

[Skull]

Always give. It is good for us to develop or increase a generous spirit. What is given & of what quality or amount can be adjusted, based on our evaluation of the recipients' response to OUR generosity. Never mind their history,

[Mark]

Someone once said be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves. That comes real close in Matthew to the warnings to fear those who can kill the soul. It seems it would be better for us to be innocent in these cases and live the life of charity. If the charity is spent wrong it does not reflect on the giver. The wisdom, and the tougher part of that charity, might be when we are asked to give more than a 5-spot and build up the person. Do we have that ability in the charity before us, or is the best we can do money and a prayer? That determination takes wisdom.