Smart Compassion

I have been thinking through this idea of being compassionate, but doing so in a smart way. What does this mean?

It is possible to have the intention of helping, when in actuality your efforts are not so helpful and may make things worse. How to best help the needy is debated. The conservative approach argues that providing too much help can actually undermine progress by enabling the person to stay in their needy state. For example, some time ago, a Little Rock city administrator told me that he thinks the people feeding the homeless under the bridge are part of the problem. The rationale being that if you feed the homeless and make them comfortable, they will have less incentive to do something about their situation. It is not smart to contribute to a problem.

I have observed some with this conservative orientation not provide much help, if any, with the attitude that not helping is actually helping. This tended to be my mode in the past. This attitude is a little too convenient as it sides with a natural tendency to be selfish.

By actually hanging out with the homeless and needy over the past several years I certainly have seen lots of help go to the drug addicts and slothful week after week. It does not seem too smart to be overly liberal with these types. However, I have also seen many exceptions that would break your heart. Overlooking these exceptions does not seem smart if you are trying to be a compassionate Jesus follower.

We need to be generous, compassionate, and smart. We have limited time and money. We want it to go to the truly needy. Seems we can set up some simple checks and rules to follow, like not giving cash to beggars. One thing I did several years back was that each time a street person asked for money, I would refuse, but send $5 to the local shelter.