What’s your password ?

I recently added my work email to my iPhone. Because of this, my phone required me to put in a password for my phone. Not a password for my email. My phone! So I quickly typed in a 4 digit code so I was able to access me email.

Here’s what I noticed: It’s such an inconvenience . Before I was able to slide my thumb and access anything I wanted instantly. Now I must enter my code every time I want to use my phone. I also noticed that at first I had to think about my code. It took me about two seconds to process what I had used as a code and then punch it in. Finally I noticed that over time, typing in my password, became second hand and I literally forgot about the code altogether.

Now I know I may be taking this password thing a little too deeply but it made me think about some things.

Things come up in our lives that require a password. They are always things we want to hide. Things we want to secure. These are the deepest, and most vulnerable parts of our soul. And so we comply. We punch in the figurative codes to our heart so all of that emotion, all of that information, and all of those secrets are safe. I see a few problems with this.

1) When we put up a password to block others out, we simultaneously create another barrier between ourselves and those things. We essentially make it more difficult on ourselves to access our own vault.

2) We get so use to punching in our own password that we don’t even realize that we’re hiding certain things. We’ve punched in the code so many times that it’s become a part of “what we do”. We’ve deceived ourselves.

3) We forget the password. I don’t know about you, but I have about 20 something passwords. Different things require different types of passwords. You have to a capital letter, space , number, plus a chinese symbol or something. This inevitably leads to me occasionally forgetting a code or two. What a pain! If you can’t remember what street you lived on as a kid, or your first pet’s name, then you’re really in trouble. Many of us symbolically create 18 digit passwords as if to intentionally forget it. We love forgetting passwords because that means we never have to go there. We never have to access that account or think about those thoughts. Let me assure you, what you’ve locked in your vault is never going away without you unlocking it.

Some of the passwords we make are silly. We make them because we’re insecure or we want to hide something simple. Others are very deep and are detrimental to our well being. If you have lost your password, let me assure you that there is a master locksmith. He doesn’t forget passwords. He knows what’s down there. Let him go to work on your heart.