C. S. Lewis was walking with a friend when they came across a beggar on the street. The friend kept walking and Lewis stopped, emptied his wallet and gave it to the man. Lewis resumed walking with his friend who challenged Lewis, “You know he’s only going to spend that money on ale, you shouldn’t have done that.”
Lewis looked at his friend and said, “Well, that’s what I was going to spend it on.”

Followers of Christ need to be a part of developing systems in our world that provide for those in need. One good example in the Old Testament was the “gleaning” system. Farmers would purposely leave the edges of their fields for the poor. It was a great system. It was not a hand out. Handouts come with all sorts of complications—they can create dependence, they are subject to misuse, they can be humiliating. Gleaning requires the person in poverty do some work to receive their gain. My brother and I remember going with mom to a local farmer's field. The machine harvesting the corn dropped a lot on the ground. We picked up the many corn-filled cobs that fell to the ground. We gleaned and my family was able to pay a bill or two we couldn't pay before. Not all systems for assisting people in poverty come with such an effective way to preserve people's dignity and encourage "sweat equity" in the donation they receive.(Habitat for Humanity is one great example.)