Free will and bad choices

I am reading Al-Anon literature because I have a loved one who is suffering the consequences of drinking to excess.  Al-Anon says that we are powerless to fix the alcoholic.  We cannot make choices for them.  They "deserve the chance to hit a 'bottom' of their own."  "All we can do is to serve as an example of the joy and serenity that recovery can provide, and respect the rights of our loved ones to make the choices they need to make, even if we despise the nature of these choices."  (Empasis mine)

Is this true?  Do we sit back and let people close to us make bad decisions that lead to painful consequences?  What if these consequences lead to their death or the death of someone else?  Am I cuplable if I do nothing?  Someone said, "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing."  Does evil have a right to triumph?  Don't I have a duty to intervene if I can stop something bad from happening?

What about me?  The Bible says, "People are evil from the time they are young."  And "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure."  God knows me.  He knows my heart.  He knows that I make bad decisions over and over again.

Yet, he lets me make them.  God allows me to make choices to hit bottom, even if my choices are contrary to His nature.

God knows that I am powerless to fix my heart.  But, I am not abandoned.  I am not alone.  God has shared his righteousness in the Law.  It is my reminder of how I should live.  Bad choices have natureal consequences to keep me on the right path or steer me back to it when I stray.  Jesus is my example of living with love and joy and peace.

What about those close to me who are making bad choices?  Do I have any responsibility to them?  At the very beginning of time, Cain was angry that God liked Abel's gift, but did not accept Cain's gift.  God came to Cain and told him to fight the sin inside of him.  God did not go to Adam and Eve and tell them to rein in their son.  After Cain killed his brother, God confronted Cain, not Adam and Eve.  Nowhere in the Bible are Adam and Eve held accountable for Abel's murder.  Maybe they blamed themselves for doing nothing.  No one else did.  

The lesson is that each of us is personally responsible for our actions. 

Does this mean that we stand aside while people make bad decisions?  No.  Maybe Adam and Eve were on their guard about Cain.  Maybe that is why Cain asked Abel to go out into the field with him, away from the rest of the family.  When God confronted Cain, Cain acted like he had no idea what happened because the murder was done in secret.

God tells Ezekiel that he is responsible for the people of his generation.  Ezekiel must tell them to stop sinning.  If they stop, great.  If they choose to keep sinning, they will be punished, not Ezekiel.  On the other hand, if Ezekiel does not speak up, he will be punished for the people's sins.

Perhaps the same is true for me.  I can be the light of the world as God's love shines through me.  I can be the salt of the earth and burn in the wound of someone who is making bad choices.  I can be hope, and faith, and an instrument of God's peace.  

People are still free to reject the good and turn to the darkness.  This is something I have no control over.  All I can do is bloom where I am planted and pray that God uses me for His glory and to bring people closer to Him.

May God give me the courage to do this today.