Password Protected

In this day and age there is a password for everything.  Any time you log on to a computer you probably use a password.  If you use online banking you need a username and password to access your account.  The same goes for email, Facebook, Amazon, Paypal, eBay, Pinterest, Blogger and any other online business or interesting page that you subscribe to.  Obviously, the ideal thing would be to use the same username and password for every single account that you have. But, alas, sometimes the username is already taken or worse yet, you are told you have to add some foreign character to your password to get the highest security. You finally come up with something that they accept and then when you go to sign in two weeks later, you can't remember what username or password you used. Eventually you find a place to store all these passwords where you can retrieve them when you need them.  Often they are in an inconspicuous file labeled PASSWORDS on your computer desktop on in your top desk drawer in an envelope with the same secretive title.

Recently, I had a very frustrating experience with a lost username and password. As part of my job at New Hope, I have to electronically file the federal, state and local payroll taxes each month. I usually like to do this when I am alone in the office so I am less likely to be interrupted.  On one such Friday, I logged onto Quick Books and did all the monthly reports and got everything ready and then went to the place where I keep my usernames and passwords to file and pay the taxes. I have a separate paper for each of the three entities and on each I have written the username and password needed to file them. ALL three of the papers were missing!  I couldn't believe it.  There was no way this could happen.  Trying not to panic, I looked everywhere.  Nothing. Frantically, I tried to think when I had last used them. I remembered having the papers out about a week ago to do some quarterly filing.  I finally concluded that I must have accidently picked them up with a stack of papers and put them through the shredder. Berating myself for not having the passwords anywhere else, I began to assess my options.  I have done this filing every month for the last seven years so you would think that I might be able to remember the passwords.  I racked my brain and prayed and miraculously I did remember the usernames and passwords for the federal tax and the local tax.  I went ahead and filed them and then began the difficult task of  recovering the passwords for the Pennsylvania tax.

I called the PA Department of Revenue. After the usual runaround of the recorded "if you are calling concerning _______ please push number ______," I finally was connected to a human who unfortunately was having as bad a day as I was.  I explained my situation and she curtly informed me that there was no way she could give me what I needed unless I could answer the security questions:

1. What is your mother's maiden name? and
2. In what city were you born?

Well, I knew that I wasn't the one who set up the account, so I told her I would have to research the answers and get back to her. I called the three persons who I thought might have originally set the account up and got their mother's maiden names and their cities of birth. Armed with this information, I called the Department of Revenue back, hoping that I would get a friendlier person.  No such luck.  Is it possible that they only have one person who takes phone calls?   As I read off the answers I had been given she smugly replied that none of them were correct. I asked her if she could give me some hints. When she refused, I asked her what my options were.  She told me the only thing I could do was register as a new filer and it would take several weeks for everything to go through.  I thanked her (well, maybe I didn't) and with a sigh, hung up. 

I decided to give it a rest over the weekend and hoped that maybe the username and password would just magically appear in my brain sometime over the next two days. It didn't. On Monday I returned to work and told my boss what had happened.  He offered to pray that the missing papers would reappear.  I was grateful for his prayer but was pretty certain I had looked in every possible place for them and was convinced that they had gone through the shredder.  I figured later in the afternoon I would start the arduous task of reregistering to file the taxes with the state. As I was typing at my computer I saw a paper sticking out behind my desktop.  I pulled it out and it wasn't one paper but three!  All the missing papers were there and on top was the Department of Revenue one with that username and password that I needed so badly!

This incident was frustrating and annoying but I learned some things from it: 

• ALWAYS, ALWAYS have the usernames and passwords kept in two different places so if they disappear from the one you still have the other.
• When you think you have looked everywhere, look again.  I am sure I looked all around my computer on Friday but didn't see them.
• Even if you are having a bad day, try not to take it out on someone else.

One thing we don't need a password for is prayer. I will never be told I can't access God because I forgot my password. I am thankful that I can talk to God whenever I want to.  I also hope and pray that my heart is open and not password-protected when He is speaking to me.