ennablement?

I have a hard time sometimes discerning whether or not I am helping the guys or hurting them. It seems to me that there is only a fine line between empowering people and ennabling them. For example: bus tickets. We give out a number of bus tickets each month so the guys can go to doctors' appointments, interviews, etc. For the most part I have no problem doing this. But I often can tell that some of the guys have spent the money they did have on booze, drugs or some other expenditure that is probably not too wise. Now, I suppose it is not my job to judge the actions of the men. I am not going to say that they are bad or stupid or anything like that. But I do get annoyed that we spend money on bus tickets, which in the long run ennables guys to spend money on things other than transportation because they know they can come to us and get a "free" bus pass if they are out of money. The way I see it we at some point need to let natural law run its course. Meaning: if you spend all your money on booze then you will have to suffer the consequences of missing your doctor's appointment because you have no money anymore for transportation. This is a rule that we follow in "normal" society. I would not be a judge in this situation, I would only be allowing cause and effect to do its thing.

So do I still give out bus tickets, within reason, to everyone who needs them? Yes. Why is this so? There are a number of problems with the above thinking, or at least some reasons to still give the guys tickets. The first reason is that I cannot always identify what the guys have spent their money on, if they have any. In fact, for the most part I can really never know exactly what they have spent their money on. I can only make educated guesses. I also think to myself that maybe this doctors' appointment or maybe this interview will finally push the guy to change. Maybe that one bus ticket will be the difference between despair and recovery. It is a simple hope, but a strong one. A third reason why I still decide to give bus tickets is that even though I get annoyed with this violation of cause and effect, I feel I must take into consideration that these guys have a certain background and because of this they deserve extra time to change. Maybe they are not ready right now to make the leap into recovery, but that bus ticket may keep them alive long enough to get to a better place.

I am sure there are many more arguments for and against giving away bus tickets. The point is that in everything we do we must decide if we are helping people or hurting them. And although it seems like it may be easy to figure this out, it is not. Reason does not always work and therefore we must often look to our hearts. I know that I, for one, often do this, which causes me to act differently than my brain would have me. Read: give away tickets because I simply cannot say no. Maybe this is pity, maybe empathy, I do not know. I also did not know that the seemingly simple job of giving away bus tickets could become so complex.