Have a safe journey.

Where are you traveling next? Whether your trip is domestic or international, by plane or by train, there are ways to prepare yourself to have good health and safety while you're visiting your destination.

I'm traveling a lot these days, and some of the places I'm visiting have been categorized as unsafe, prone to disease, and underdeveloped. But before every trip, I take time to see myself as a witness of God's loving care. I mentally embrace my destination as a holy place, where everyone I meet will be one of God's children, spiritual and good. This way of thinking is a form of prayer.

I'm taking time to see everything and everyone from a spiritual perspective, as perfect and created by God. If I refuse to be influenced by reports of crime, corruption, disease, or poverty as part of my destination's identity, I'm defending myself from fear, pessimism, doubt, and criticism. And I'm also contributing to the welfare of the place by loving it in advance.

Such a defense is actually the armor of love, and it protects me wherever I go. As Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of this newspaper, put it in her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," "Christian Science brings to light Truth and its supremacy, universal harmony, the entireness of God, good, and the nothingness of evil" (p. 293).

This defense applies to reports of flu, which are still making headlines in many parts of the world. Instead of being sucked into fear and sensationalism, we can bless our cities and travel destinations with prayer that rejects fear and refuses to accept thoughts of disease as real and God-given.

Mrs. Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, often referred to God as divine Mind. Being perfect and pure, Mind cannot be touched by mortal or material elements such as disease, corruption, want, and fear. Mind is the source of all intelligence in the universe. Being infinite, it cannot be absent from our consciousness. In fact, we are spiritual ideas in this Mind.

Every time we think of conditions in our home city or at our destination, we can give Mind thanks for intelligence with which the universe is made and how each of us is actually spiritual, safe in Mind, and not a material being subject to disease and fear. And our prayer can include all our fellow travelers and the residents of the place we're visiting.

As an idea of Mind, each of us has the authority to say "no more" or "stop" to sickness or danger. No matter how scary it looks, anything that isn't good isn't from God. Our prayer can prove it has no real substance; that it is only shadow that is cast away when we shed the light of spiritual truth on it. This truth declares our heritage as sons and daughters of God.

To me it's important to think of a location before I arrive there, not as just a geographical spot on Earth but as part of God's universe. In my prayers, I declare that it therefore is holy, pure, and full of goodness.

One verse in a hymn from the "Christian Science Hymnal" captures this idea:

I reach Mind's open door, and at its portal
I know that where I stand is holy ground;
I feel the calm and joy of things immortal,
The loveliness of Love is all around.
(Violet Hay, No. 64).

When the door of our thought is open, the light comes in. We realize we have always stood on holy ground, no matter what the shadows suggested. The healing balm is within our reach – in consciousness. As Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21).

By relying on God, you can be a cheerful traveler and a witness to an already harmonious, health-filled, good destination. God, who is Love, welcomes you and will care for you every step of the way.