Jean Newell, Associate Pastor

Passwords! Have you noticed that without a password, not just any password, mind you – but without the correct password, much of the world around us is inaccessible. For example, I need a password to access both my computer at the church and my computer at home, to access email, to check my online bank accounts and credit card expenses and to find out the latest about my retirement accounts. I even need a password to be able to use my phone!

Creating a password can be a challenge, can it not? Many times, you are told a password needs 8 to 32 characters, which is easy enough to do, but then it gets trickier when you also have to include one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter and one number. Sometimes passwords also require a special character like an exclamation point or the number symbol. Sometimes a password is case sensitive, and sometimes not. Sometimes it works to use short phrases such as “Dogsrunhome” or AZtallcactus.” Whatever you use for a password, it is strongly recommended you not use one password for every account you need to access because if, unbeknownst to you, someone else ever identifies that password, your whole life is open to view. However, if you have different passwords for every account, now you have a whole list of random words and characters to remember.

Woe be it when something happens, and you have to change a password! I’ve had to do that and, in the process, have been told I can’t reuse a password I’ve used before; the new password has to be NEW! Reluctantly, I’ve changed passwords and then hoped I would remember the change. Unfortunately, I don’t always remember, and that lapse in memory causes a whole new set of problems. I understand the need for security these days, but sometimes the need to use a password and challenge questions, meant to ascertain you really are who you say you are, requires more time than I have, so I don’t do anything.

How thankful I am that our access to God is not password protected! Even those times when we are sick or tired or overwhelmed and our voices fail us, God is with us for Jesus promised, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” – Matthew 28:20b. Access is ours, forever and always. Thanks be to God!