How important is identity management to protecting your online presence?  

For example, do you know who has access to your website(s)? 

Especially if your site receives financial or personal information, you want to limit access to only those who really need it. (This is known as the principle of least privilege). More people with access means more possibilities of inadvertent disclosure of important credentials. 

Be sure too that any service or app you use for giving/donations will protect identities and account information.

That said, there’s an important parallel to identity management with our hearts as well.

Just as hackers utilize false identities to infiltrate our sites (especially through phishing schemes and social engineering), there’s a constant pull inside each of us to find an identity in something other than Jesus.

Author Justin Holcomb captures this in a great way when he writes:

“If you’ve seen Fight Club, you’ll remember Tyler Durden’s powerful diatribe against the false identities we assume: “You’re not how much money you’ve got in the bank. You’re not your job. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your family. You’re not your problems. You’re not your age. You are not your hopes. You’re not your khakis.” 

In the spirit of Durden (and Luther), you are not your real or perceived set of identifiers. You are not your divorce. You’re not your parents’ divorce. You are not your addiction or disorder or STD. You aren’t your pattern of dealing with relationships, your adultery, your anger. You are not your wallet or your wit. 

Isaiah tells us that our righteousness is as filthy rags, but it is Jesus’ robe of righteousness draped over us that God sees. We need a God before whom we can put aside the disguise—trusting that when He sees us He won’t turn away or smite us in anger. With this possible, for just a moment, the vicious habits of identity maintenance can stop, and we can step down onto the firm ground of acceptance.”

This is true identity management, and it changes everything. 

Just as we would seek to root out the intruders from our online presence, how much more should we seek this for our hearts!

May God grant us grace to daily recognize and name, as Durden and Holcomb do, the false identities (many that are good things in themselves) that we look to for meaning and purpose.

This is possible, for in Jesus, we are already accepted and dearly loved. In him, money, jobs, wallets, and even sufferings and failures, can be transformed.

To the extent that we live out of this true, gospel-shaped identity, a watching world will see Jesus in his church!

Truepath’s vision is to empower Christian organizations and businesses to take full advantage of their online presence by providing affordable and best-in-class applications and dedicated, live customer support. You can reach us at: (760) 480-8791.