The Linen Bin

In the Spring of 2023, I took a job where I sorted donations into categories like Housewares, Electronics, Toys, and Linens. The influx of donations on a daily basis was substantial and therefore made the job extremely fast-paced and physically demanding. We had to move a lot of stuff, and quickly, in order to stay ahead. Sometymes when I got a mixed bag, or what I called a “Mary Poppins bag”. of stuff … you know, the bag that has everything and just keeps on giving … it could be quite frustrating. I’d drop something in the electronics bin, pull out something that needed to go out to the book bin, only to find more electronics as I went through the bag. It really was quite exhausting.

Because of the Mary Poppins bags, sometymes it just made more sense to stand in a central location and start tossing things where they went. Of course, this practice is not recommended for Housewares items; for whatever reason, coffee mugs, plates and such tend to break if you toss them. Odd. Hoever, for things like linens, shoes, handbags and such, tossing could really save some steps and energy.

The category bins were set up in such a way that as we filled them, we could stack them, saving space in our work area. Depending on what came in, certain stacks built up faster than others. While the fabric bin might have had only one level, the office bin could have had two levels, while the shoe bin had three levels. Because of this staggering process, sometymes it made it difficult to see certain stacks from my central location.

One day as I sorted yet another Mary Poppins bag, tossing items this way and that, I went to toss a blanket into the linen bin, but I could not see the linen bin because of the miscellaneous furniture bin … seriously, there were so. many. bins. I paused for just a moment and considered taking the extra steps to walk the blanket to the linen bin to make sure it got where it was supposed to go, but I decided against doing that. You see, I knew the linen bin was there even if I couldn’t see it. I knew that if I tossed the blanket over the furniture bin, the linen bin would be there to catch it. So, I tossed it and went on sorting the Mary Poppins bag … and just in case you’re wondering, it is quite possible that there was a chorus of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious going through my mind as I sorted.

As I went about my work, I thought about how the act of tossing that blanket represented my faith. The truth is, I can’t often see the right move to make or how to handle the ins and outs of my day-to-day life. Still, just like that linen bin that I couldn’t see, I know God is there to catch me no matter what happens. Yes, sometymes I really wish I could just see Him. I wish I could just sit down with Him and have a conversation about my life and His plan for me, but that’s not how faith works.

Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. In John 20:29, Jesus says to Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen [Me] and yet have believed.

While I cannot see God in a physical form, I know He is there because I can see His artistry in the sunrise and the blue skies. While I cannot hear God’s voice in an audible manner, I can hear His presence in the sound of the wind wafting through the trees. While I cannot have a conversation with God in that He answers verbally, I can read His holy word and get His answers to my many questions.

Of course, it’s not always easy to have such faith. It can be terrifying to make decisions when we cannot begin to see how the outcome could possibly be in our favor. It is impossible for our finite minds to understand God’s infinite mind and when we try to, well, struggles arise. As one who generally wants to know the “why” of things, it can be a real battle for me to let faith take over where my knowledge ends. In short, not only do I want to see the linen bin before I toss the blanket, I want to actually see the blanket go in the linen bin when I finally decide to let it go. Let’s face it, faith is not for the faint at heart. Faith is not for those who change their opinions and mindsets like they change their socks. Faith is for those who are willing to let go of what they can’t see and trust what or rather Who they know is there.

In Psalm 139, David asks the question of God, “Where can I go from Your Spirit?” David’s conclusion was that there was no place he could go that God was not there. Not only that though, he also remarked about how God knew everything about Him and nothing could keep God from Him. He wrote, “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!” God really does care about us and every facet of our lives. It stands to reason then, that since He cares about every facet of our lives, He will be there for everything we go through in our lives.

In this ever-darkening world, – a world that seems to get heavier and stranger by the day - when we don’t know the right choices to make about the difficult decisions we face, God is here. He is here and He is ready to catch our blankets when we toss them. The key is though, we have to toss them. No matter what’s blocking our view of Him, be it the need for a new job, or selling a house, or healing from the past, or a financial struggle, God is here and the sooner we toss Him the blanket, the sooner we can continue on with our work. Blessed are we when we do not see Him but toss Him the blanket anyway.

So, when life feels like a Mary Poppins bag of stuff that we need to sort out, let’s do our best to remember that even when the bins are not visible to us, they are there. We just need to stand strong in the central location of God’s promises and start tossing the blankets as we get them. In short, let’s let our mindset and faith motto be, “Bin there, toss that.”