Yesterday I joined LinkedIn just because someone invited me to. I’m very compliant. Now, I’m doubting the wisdom in doing this. Do I need to be a member of another social network? After six years of practice I am fluent in Facebook. Twitter, I tried for a day some while ago and failed to understand why I would want to tweet or be forever tweeted at. I thought that’s where it would end. Now there’s something else to get to grips with?!

I know, I know, it’s a good tool if you’re trying to set up a business so I should stick it out. However, where Facebook is friendly and fun on the whole, on first impression LinkedIn is serious and intimidating. Everybody is listed with their job title underneath. As soon as I’d entered in my (work) experience and saw it there in black and white I felt like deleting it all and myself along with it. I didn’t. If you just look at the print I’m someone who can’t stick at a job and has long periods of unemployment, rather than a mother of four who has worked where she can and been rather busy in all the in-betweens. How can I compare with all these professional people with lengthy job titles and illustrious careers? Who would want to link with me? For me it’s a quick slide into a familiar dark, dingy, depressive hole, for a few moments at least. I start to question myself and every decision I have ever made in life. All in a moment.

The real question is where I find my identity. Just after joining LinkedIn and going on my little downward spiral I listened to a talk by Christine Caine posted on Ann Voscamp’s site. She addresses a hall full of students, but it was just what I needed to hear. I knew it already, but needed to hear it again. I do not need a title, or a great career, or for people to know who I am, or even what I have and have not achieved thus far in my life. My job, my highest calling, is not about me at all, it is to run the race of faith that God has set out for me, to serve diligently and to show Jesus’ love to the world, starting with the people closest and moving out from there. There may not be many credits, awards or titles for that in this life, but all those belong to God anyway. My identity is in Him.

Now I’ve got that straight I can be unashamed of my working past on some social networking site, and get on with making a difference in the here and now.