Travel in safety

``BE not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.''1 How reassuring such Bible promises can be to anyone who is traveling these days. Yet how can we be sure, really sure, that God is with us? We hear and read about so much terrorism, not to mention accidents. Maybe we'd all like to trust God more deeply, but how do we do that? Trusting God needs to start with the admission that He exists, that He is good, and that He loves us, as the Bible teaches. One way to show our trust in God is to examine our motives for the trip we're considering taking. It's not wrong to go on a legitimate business trip, to take a vacation, or to travel somewhere we honestly feel we should be. It's also important that we pray and listen for that inner sense of His direction.

Such guidance is the exact opposite of a personal willfulness that is determined to go ahead with its plans under any circumstances. In fact, when we're listening for divine direction, we're willing totally to yield to God. Then if the answer is ``Yes,'' we go. If it's ``No,'' we stay home. We can all have this unerring direction because God is divine Mind; He is our Mind, since each one of us is in truth God's own expression, the reflection of the divine Mind.

When we're willing to pray and listen for God's direction, for His thoughts, we're willing to acknowledge His supremacy. And that's a most important step in being free from fear and danger. In Christian Science, acknowledging God as supreme means knowing that He is the only power and presence; that He is perfect Love; and that since He is always present, we can't ever be out of His care or run into anything unlike His goodness. Then we have to trust the truth we know of God's presence.

Yet someone might ask, ``How can this trust in God's power keep us safe when we travel?'' One answer is that such trust changes our thought and therefore harmonizes our lives. It begins to correct the mistaken conviction that we're vulnerable mortals living in a terribly dangerous world. True, the material world does seem dangerous, and we certainly can't ignore it. What we can do, though, is to realize that as God's creation we're not actually mortals at all, even though our senses tell us otherwise. We're God's immortal, spiritual man--the man Christ Jesus taught about and revealed through his life and healings. And in truth ``we live, and move, and have our being''2 in God, in His perfect safety.

Jesus seemed at times to be in danger because of the things he did and said. The Bible tells us that on one occasion his teachings so upset the people listening to him that they tried to capture him. ``And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him.''3 Jesus was so conscious of his unity with God as God's beloved Son, and he was so obedient to God, that he could not be harmed.

No, we're not Jesus. But we are God's sons and daughters, and so, in reality, are the people who seem most likely to harm us. The more we recognize each individual to be God's own expression--as challenging as that may seem--the better off we all will be. Divine Love's man cannot harm or be harmed, for he is the very idea of Love.

This truth keeps us free from accidents also. Man dwells in Love's presence where there is neither chance nor danger. Since God is always in control of His own creation, nothing can ever fall out of His omnipresence. He maintains His creation in perfection, and that perfection never changes.

Traveling in safety should be and can be a perfectly natural thing. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says in Miscellaneous Writings: ``Divine Love is our hope, strength, and shield. We have nothing to fear when Love is at the helm of thought, but everything to enjoy on earth and in heaven.''4

So our responsibility is to make sure that God, divine Love, is guiding us, that we are listening to Him, trusting Him, and acknowledging His supreme control. Then the traveling that we feel led to do can be enjoyed in perfect safety.

1Joshua 1:9. 2Acts 17:28. 3John 7:44. 4Mis., p. 113. DAILY BIBLE VERSE The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore. Psalms 12:8