After coming back to Facebook after my year of sabbatical, I almost immediately hit the same old funk that drove me away. It’s so disheartening to unfollowing someone you’d otherwise love to keep up with because the vitriol in their posts, their denial of science, their endorsement of egocentric power, their intolerance, their bigotry, or their hate.

And It would be useful for me to know about how and when I’ve been unfollowed or unfriended because of my posts. Today I was thinking of the science of learning acquisition and brain development–how amazing it is that we learn to talk. Then I realized that the greater miracle is that some people actually learn not to.

To bury your head in the sand by leaving Facebook may give you some much needed relief, but it doesn’t help you become a better person or to help anyone else. Social media has a part to play, it’s a tool of great potential, but how do you use it for good? How can it help you or the people you connect with? How can you use it with going completely nuts?

I’ve been a little intrigued by my grandson’s posts since coming back to Facebook on August 6th. He only posts short scriptures, about one a day, and without comment. Sometimes these scriptures make me wonder why he picked that particular scripture for the day. And I’ve wondered for years if there was a way to share the Good News of Christ on social media without turning people away – without being smug, self righteous, or sanctimonious.

Today I heard the Prayer of St. Francis for the first time:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me bring love.

Where there is offense, let me bring pardon.

Where there is discord, let me bring union.

Where there is error, let me bring truth.

Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.

Where there is despair, let me bring hope.

Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.

Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.

O Master, let me not seek as much

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love,

for it is in giving that one receives,

it is in self-forgetting that one finds,

it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,

it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.

So, yeah, there it is: this is my goal for all future posts on social media. I know it’s a lofty goal that I’m sure to fail at, but I’m gonna try. If you see me slip, then call me out on this. Just make the comment “remember the prayer of St. Francis” and that will be our code to remind me I’m slipping up.