BComm

When I finished high school, my plan was to be a Chartered Accountant.  So, I went to University and graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree. I began to article towards a CA with a major accounting firm.  During my first year as a rookie accountant, I could no longer ignore the call to ministry, so I left the the CA program and enrolled in theological college.  Twenty-five years later, here we are.

But there is still that part of me that loves the discipline and language of accounting.  Maybe that is why I signed up for the ABCD workshop this week hosted by Leduc Family and Community Support Services: Asset-Based Community Development.  The concept is to recognise what you already have and move forward from there.  It sounds like a build-from-your-strengths model.  Assets, from an accounting perspective, are the things of value which you have.  The metaphor translates beautifully to the community context.

One of the assets we all have is our time.  It is valuable and we all have the same amount (as long as we each are occupying the same spot in the universe).  Assets are seldom unlimited: certainly time has it's hard edges.  Each day only has so much time.  The blessing is that each day is a new start, a new gifts of 24 hours, but only 24 hours.

How ironic that I will have to miss part of the ABCD workshop because I don't have enough time to give it.  This is one of those too busy weeks for me as a minister: two funerals, church meetings and we are the host site for the winter meeting of Yellowhead Presbytery.  And that is only my minister hat, the husband, father and friend wants a slice of this week's time-pie.

I can't work with what I don't have.  Time is my asset, it is valuable, but it has limits.  There is no sense lamenting the lack of time.  I need to remember my 'asset' training and be calm.  Time will tell.