Filing: a missionary's worst nightmare. And, coincidentally, what most of my work week has consisted of.
Not just filing. Filing huge stacks of semi-organized papers. Filing confirmation of a bureaucratic over-reliance on abusing natural resources. Filing and reading page after page of evidence of how unjust our justice system is. Earlier this week, I came across heart-wrenching letters between an inmate and his mother that brought me to tears; I had to step outside and call my mom before I could face those documents again.
None of this is to say that I don't do other things, or that the filing I'm doing isn't important. I love my job, I believe in my organization, and I have awesome coworkers. But when I stepped into the office on Monday, all I could see were thousands and thousands of pages to be read, sorted, and put away.
After hours and hours of work, the sea of paper has finally melted down into a neatly organized filing cabinet. Unlike most aspects of the non-profit life, this effort has yielded a tangible result, and one of which I am immensely proud. Out of all this frustration I have found an immense source of peace -- that I did that. Not only did I help my organization be a little more efficient, but I learned so much about it as I read and put away allllll those pages.
I thought about asking my coworker to take a picture of me with said filing cabinet for this blog, but I decided that would be too weird. You'll just have to imagine a picture of a very happy me standing next to an admitted drab piece of office furniture.
Peace of Christ!
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