Travel safely with prayer
Candace du Mars
As authorities disrupt a possible terrorist attack on flights between the UK and the US, there's an accompanying rise in fear about travel safety.
Using examples from her own life, Candace du Mars, a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science, talks about true security as originating from a higher divine authority—God.
During the chat, Candace answers questions from site visitors and explains the effectiveness of prayer in healing world issues as well as the importance of not giving in to fear. She affirms that the law of God is a protection at all times.
spirituality.com host: Hello, everyone! Welcome to another spirituality.com live question and answer audio event. Our topic for today is “Travel safely with prayer,” and it’s in response to the discovery of plans for a terror attack on airplanes traveling between Great Britain and the United States. Many of the planners are in custody, and we’re grateful for the wonderful investigative work that uncovered the plot. But officials are urging caution, and since this is a busy travel season, we thought it would be good to gather on the Web so we could think and pray together about safe travel under God’s care.
Our guest is Candace du Mars, a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science from Olympia, Washington. Candace has been in the full-time practice of spiritual healing for 19 years. She has also been a Christian Science lecturer and First Reader of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, here in Boston.
Candace, do you have some comments you’d like to make in order to get us started?
Candace du Mars: One of the things I heard on the news this morning was that we should go about our daily lives, leaving security to the authorities. So I want to start by being grateful to those authorities for all they did in foiling this plot. And we know their investigation is still going on. But I think we need to start with gratitude for that good, because I think sometimes it can get overlooked when you start focusing on the human details of the situation.
And so in leaving security to the authorities, what came to me was that true security really comes only from that divine authority that really rules. So anytime we think hate is the ruler, we can go to that idea of a divine authority, God as Love, really being supreme and ruling. And I think that begins to calm fear. And something I found in Proverbs this morning was, “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.”
So safety that has divine authority, divine law, undergirding it—that’s what we’re relying on. And to travel safely isn’t dependent on an airplane, on cars, on what somebody else wants to do. It has a higher law. And that’s why I think this protection came, because good is more powerful than evil.
spirituality.com host: You know, I was just thinking as you were talking that we can already see the power of God at work in having this plot uncovered.
Candace: Exactly. And in Job there’s this statement, “Thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety.” So we must keep that sense of hope that there will be a good outcome in our world, that we’re not just sitting here being overwhelmed.
It says in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, “Understanding the control which Love held over all, Daniel felt safe in the lions’ den, and Paul proved the viper to be harmless.” And it seems like there are some vipers out there trying to attack. But we really have to take this idea of Love as maybe viewing people from a different view than some are vipers and some are good guys, the view that all of this is God’s creation and it’s under His control. And these extremes can’t just come in and overwhelm us.
spirituality.com host: I love that idea about Love, too—that Love holds the control, not the other way around. It often seems the other way, doesn’t it?
Candace: Exactly. But that’s what we’re here for—to be witnesses to the true, and not to fall for that. Another passage from Proverbs says: “A true witness delivereth souls: but a deceitful witness speaketh lies. In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge.” So being a true witness can actually save people.
And a false witness would be somebody who sees a glass empty, half empty, or even half full. The true witness would see that full glass, or that fullness of God, good, and begin magnifying the good—courage, hope, and all those things—rather than being fearful, hopeless, negative, and cynical. Rather than being governed by fear and feeling overwhelmed ourselves, we can begin to be true witnesses and look at things in a different way. And that’s what I’ve tried to do when these things come up.
Just that one simple turn of thought can really have a lot of power.
spirituality.com host: Yes, it can. And Johanna from New York is, in a way, asking for us to help her with that. She says, “I’m due to fly to Europe in a couple of weeks. How can I pray to calm my fears?”
Candace: In the Bible the 91st Psalm talks about being “under the wings” of God, under those heavenly wings, rather than being dependent on a material tube flying through space. We’re always under those wings of God and not really moving around the world.
I can remember in my own life, I always got tremendously ill when I flew. And one day I got on the plane, and a woman said, “You know, leave your life behind and just let God carry this plane in His hand.” I was never afraid again, and I never was sick again on a plane. And then I began to be able to help others to overcome that. So a lot of it is just those fears we have of being off the ground.
If we think of ourselves as being under God’s wings, we are calmed; and we don’t have to be so fearful. Certainly these terrorist incidents don’t help, but as we see that God is always caring for us, this protects and saves. Knowing that we’re one with God, one with Love, is a prayer that not only benefits us, but also allows us to be of help to others.
spirituality.com host: Interestingly enough, Robert in Los Angeles, is pointing us toward the world, because he’s saying, “Isn’t it also important to pray for the people currently in custody in England, because they’re also obviously in need of Love’s support and help?”
Candace: Rather than seeing them as terrorists, we have to go higher. I can’t imagine that anyone thinking rationally would want to commit suicide. We are affirming life when we affirm God and His divine authority. This affirmation of Life directly counters suicide bombings. No one wants to be mesmerized into doing something that destroys them.
We have to be witnesses to the truth of God, rather than just being overwhelmed. So, yes, I think we have to go beyond the material evidence that says, “This is a sinner” or “This is an extremist,” to see that these people need our prayers. In a way, they’re victims of the mesmerized thinking that glorifies suicide.
We don’t have to be hopeless. As true witnesses for good, we can play a part in refusing to be part of a groupthink or mass fear. We can individually pray, and then all unite in prayer.
And I think the world is seeing that as a situation comes up, and everybody begins to pray, things change. We’ve seen the Berlin Wall come down. And we’ve seen other things—I remember a few years ago hearing that there was going to be a plague starting in India. I know people prayed about that, and it never happened.
That’s the power we have as we refuse to give in to the fear, and turn to prayer. So as I did that this morning, what came to me was that idea of divine authority and being a true witness. I hadn’t thought about that before, but it just really came to me that that’s what I could do sitting right here in my home.
spirituality.com host: Isabel is taking us a bit further in the direction you’ve just been pointing out. She says, “I’m really glad that this terrorist plot was uncovered. But can’t prayer prevent a plot from forming in the first place?”
Candace: Oh, that’s great. Well, it prevented a plague. Yes, I think it can. And probably has. We don’t know where we’ve prayed, and someone has decided, “I’m not going to do that.”
In a time of instant communication, evil can’t hide. We have video cameras and the Internet, so it’s far harder to hide evil, because people find out about it. That is the result from our prayer. We’re not so willing to let conflicts go unprayed about.
spirituality.com host: Myrnita in Miami is saying, “This just seems to be one of a long string of big upheavals in this world. I’m nervous about what will be the next thing to happen.”
Candace: One of the things about “what ifs” is they don’t add to the good in the world. And so I don’t usually like to do a lot of “what if-ing.” One of the statements in Science and Health that I think really speaks to that says, “Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the material senses, Science, still enthroned, is unfolding to mortals the immutable, harmonious divine Principle,—is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and eternal.”
That’s what’s really going on. As we remain true witnesses, we remain undisturbed by what things look like outwardly, and instead know that harmony is really the rule. By expressing more harmony in our relationships at home, at work, and at school, we will be on the side of “immutable harmony,” rather than “the jarring testimony of the material senses.”
That’s powerful. It isn’t that you have to do some big extreme act. It’s all those little things that many, many thinkers and many pray-ers do that have tremendous power.
spirituality.com host: You know, you’re reminding me of a time when Northern Ireland was subject to many bomb blasts, and there was a great deal of distress there. I was in Northern Ireland doing research, and I was so impressed at the way that people did just what you said. They went about their daily lives and refused to let fear keep them locked up. They went forward. And I do feel that is a powerful witness.
Candace: I was just thinking of an incident in my own life that shows what I mean—if I have time to share that.
spirituality.com host: Sure! Go ahead.
Candace: I wasn’t on a plane. I was in a limousine with a group of five friends. Somebody in the back broke something in his limousine by accident. The driver was very upset, angry, and it just escalated. Then the people in the back started yelling at him, and he was yelling at them, and he threatened to take us out to a deserted area of the city. I don’t know what he was planning to do, but he was really mad.
I was sitting just behind him, and began to talk with him, being this witness, and knowing that Love was truly the only power. I thought particularly of mother-love, and I said to him, “Would your mother approve of you acting like this?” He said, “No, no, she would not. And in fact, you remind me of my mother.”
Then we began to chat. It was as if no one else existed. We were just talking, and pretty soon, there was the hotel. And so I got out and went toward the hotel entrance, and one of the girls came running to me and said, “The driver wants to talk to you.” So I went back, and he said, “Thank you for seeing my true identity. I would drive you people anywhere you want to go, or take you free to the airport.”
We didn’t do that, but the whole face of that situation had changed, I think because I didn’t get into the fray. I continued to be a witness for Love, and to magnify the good in him—because he was just a beautiful young man, and obviously the idea of motherhood united us. He was from the Middle East, and our communication went across all borders of our individual countries, as we continued our conversation.
At the time I hadn’t known what was going to happen next. It had looked bad. And he hadtaken us out of the city. But because I didn’t get afraid and I listened to Love’s message, it changed that situation.
That’s what each of us can do. Right where we are—no matter where that is—we will have opportunities to think peaceful thoughts, loving thoughts. When we’re traveling on a plane, we can help others, and use the idea of being a witness for good, rather than just fearing for ourselves.
spirituality.com host: Fred is writing from New Hampshire, and he says, “Doesn’t your expectation help to dictate your experience? Therefore, when traveling, wouldn’t the best thing be to know who is in control and be comforted in the knowledge that in reality nothing but good can enter your experience?”
Candace: I think that’s kind of what I’ve been saying. But it’s not just positive thinking. I mean, I don’t think Fred’s saying that, but for those listening, it isn’t just being positive, it’s having that sense that you’re leaning on something bigger, that something beyond the human realm is operating—these laws of Love, the law of goodness, which he talked about. That’s what’s undergirding the power of these actions. If that weren’t present, there really wouldn’t be much power to it. It would just be another human interaction. But that’s what lifts it to have that power.
spirituality.com host: That’s so true.
Candace: So, yes, exactly, Fred.
spirituality.com host: Tom from Oregon has asked a very interesting, but little bit challenging, question here. He says, “Can we challenge the entire concept that death destroys evil?” Now that’s a real interesting question.
Candace: Well, and it’s probably is going to take more time than we have, because I don’t want to go into the stuff about death today.
spirituality.com host: Okay.
Candace: I’d like to keep it life affirming. I think that’s a temptation where you look at the evil, and you examine it, and you see how bad it is. But I think today, it’s much better when you’re in these situations to really be affirming that the law of God is there, that life is what’s real and can’t ever be overwhelmed. That’s what Jesus overcame and showed us how to do. I think that’s the more important thing, when you’re in the middle of a crisis, to stay with those truths.
And the reason I say that is one statement that I have prayed with a lot in traveling, so this might be helpful to people, is, “Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other means and methods.” So grace and Truth are more potent, more powerful, than a gun, a war, than any kind of jarring thing that we might have to go through.
The power is in grace and Truth. We don’t often think those are very powerful. But we can move through these things with a grace that’s based on Love and divine authority. So I think it’s important to stay with that full glass of goodness during times of trouble. And later on you can go back and examine other things, but I just think we need that power of all of us really standing with divine Life today.
spirituality.com host: Chris from the United Kingdom is saying, “I’ve been traveling now with my Muslim friends. At airports, it hurts me when I see them scrutinized due to their looks, et cetera. With what happened today, will the scrutiny increase? I feel distressed and want to feel more at peace about how to be a true witness to truth. Any spiritual thoughts you can share would be appreciated.”
Candace: I had that same thought as I looked at those airport pictures, and you could see the different representatives of different lands. I just thought, in that situation, they were all there together. If you’re thinking of the word scrutinize, you can go back to that idea of witnessing. The false witness sees the negative, sees the material evidence of skin color, and what’s different, and what somebody’s country may have done or not done. And the true witness is seeing and knowing the “certainty of ultimate perfection.” That’s what Mrs. Eddy said. There’s a certainty, and we “cheerfully await” that.
Just as we hold to life when we’re thinking about death, we can hold to that “certainty of ultimate perfection.” It’s already there, but if there is extra scrutiny as we hold to life, it helps clarify and have people see things in a better light. As we pray about it, hopefully the newscasters can see some ways to communicate that we’re all brothers and sisters—because that’s what that’s an attack on, saying that some bad eggs of a certain ethnic origin can affect how we would think about the many good people.
The word scrutiny today, has more of a negative context. So if we stay with the true witnessing that looks at the spiritual individual and their relationship with God, and their being part of God’s creation, that strengthens everybody and the results will be more positive than if we just jump on the bandwagon and see all the differences.
For instance, when I saw that motherhood was a bridge to that young man of a different belief system than I had, we were just brothers and sisters immediately. There was no wait for that. So it’s how we’re looking at things—not what somebody else is doing, but what are we doing?
We only have responsibility for our own thinking and our own praying. But as we do that, I think the ripples go out. And as we don’t participate in the critical view of people, that goes out, as well. So I think there’s a lot of power in our own thinking and praying.
spirituality.com host: I think, if I could just say, your comment about all the good people—there is a lot of good among humankind, and sometimes because of news coverage and so forth, we tend to get the other picture. But there is much good to be appreciated.
Candace: And that’s our job: to see that, to ferret it out, to look for it, to acknowledge it, to speak about it. And the majesty of these people. They’re our brothers and sisters, and we need to keep remembering that. I think what evil wants to say is, As we become a world that’s closer, and have instant communication, all this bad is happening. But we need to keep focusing on, No, because we know what’s happening faster, we can pray about it, and we can see things move forward more quickly. So we mustn’t get jaded and discouraged.
spirituality.com host: Tammy in Florida is asking a question related to what you just said. She asks, “While we keep ourselves updated on news on airlines’ policies or other changed protocols on flying, et cetera, how can I hear the news on TV, on the Internet, more spiritually, so that I do not get overwhelmed?”
Candace: Here’s a citation from Science and Health that really helps me with that: “During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but those who discern Christian Science,” which is those laws of God, “will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection.”
It doesn’t say that it’s enough to begrudgingly do it, but that we need to be cheerfully living our lives and maintaining all the good that’s in the world, rather than letting ourselves get depressed and not do anything. But keeping our own thought with good, we’re aiding in any way we can, and doing it cheerfully.
So we don’t have to be downtrodden. I mean, we’ve had a lot of experience at this with 9/11, and we’ve been good at it. So it’s important that we realize the strength of continuing to do that together, and uniting and loving our neighbor.
When I was praying this morning as I watched the news, I wrote down certain things that stood out to me as I watched it, like security restrictions, they said—“There will be security restrictions.” And then I prayed about that. And I thought, No, God’s security can’t be restricted, it is infinite. So there just can’t be any restriction to our safety. That doesn’t mean we might not have to go to the airport and wait in line, but I wanted to change that in thought, so that in my thought, I didn’t think that could be restricted.
The news also said, “The threat level was raised.” And so I thought, How can there be a threat? What is that, and how do I pray about that? The other thing they said was, “It’s going to be a travel nightmare.” Do we just feel like we’re living in a nightmare, or do we need to awaken? With these thoughts of what God is doing and what His law demands, we can awake from that nightmare, and we can be cheerful, because we know it isn’t the real.
So one way I keep my thoughts uplifted is to take those little phrases that we hear and then pray about those, because that’s the slant of the news. Then you want to know, What’s the real view? What does the real witness see there?
spirituality.com host: You know, your comment about cheerfully, reminded me of Paul and Silas when they were imprisoned. They were singing psalms and hymns while they were in prison. Now I don’t know how I would have felt if I had been taken prisoner by the authorities, but I’m not sure I would have been singing psalms and hymns. Clearly, they were, to some extent, living out what you were saying. They were cheerfully awaiting the certainty that God’s hand would be there. And all kinds of good things happened to them that did end up setting them free.
Candace: Exactly. That sometimes seems very difficult, but I’ve found as I’ve held to that, and thought about it, it has really made a difference in how I’m approaching things. So it is possible to watch the news—and I know during one really graphic time, maybe it was Columbine, I didn’t watch. I read the paper instead, and then was able to pray. I wasn’t influenced at all by any pictures. That’s another way of making sure you don’t get pulled into somebody else’s interpretation of what’s going on.
spirituality.com host: What you were just saying about not watching, and not about being mesmerized by situations, where you feel gripped, like you have to keep watching—well, Lucie in Boston is writing something allied to that question. “So much of our entertainment,” she says, “is based on disaster scenarios. And then when there is a disaster, the media treats it almost like entertainment. Can you help us address this mental atmosphere.” Your comments about mesmerism seem very appropriate.
Candace: It’s been interesting to me that while all this has been going on in the Middle East, with images that are hard to watch on TV, and we’re in the middle of the war in Iraq. At the same time, what’s on TV are these: So You Want to Be … ?, American Idol,America’s Got Talent. All these programs that are light, that people can watch and not have think about the war and these other things all the time.
We have to be careful not to just run away and not pray about any of it. But somehow we can find that balance between what’s true and what we need to pray about without sitting there for hours listening to people yell about it back and forth. As a viewer, I want to be somewhere in that “atmosphere of intelligence,” as Mrs. Eddy called it.
So that’s where we want to head—for “the atmosphere of intelligence” from the divine Mind, because a lot of times reports are not even true and have to be corrected. We have to be very watchful of that. We’re adults, we can do that. We have intelligence, we can figure out what we need to watch and not watch.
But to take that watching to prayer—that’s the healing step. As a practitioner, you want to take the news and then pray about it and have that healing step where you get some results, rather than just standing aghast or being afraid.
I don’t think a true witness is going to live in fear all the time. They’re going to know the drought’s going to be over. They’re going to know the war will end. They’re going to know these things, and that gives them the strength to pray from a sound basis. We just cannot live from fear. And we have these instances that come, and we have to overcome the fear from that, rather than just indulge it.
spirituality.com host: That ties in with a question we have from London in the United Kingdom. The individual hasn’t given his or her name, but the question is, “How should I pray to be safe?” And I think it does return to the fact that people, particularly people who are traveling by air, probably are thinking pretty strongly right now about what to do and how to do it.
Candace: The first thing that comes to me in that question is that sometimes there’s the temptation to say, Well, we’re here now, and the Christ is in the United States, so we’re safe. We’re sorry for the people in the United Kingdom.
But we have to see that that safety of God is universal. And whether we’re on a plane or on the ground, whether we’re in one country or another, we have the same right to that safety and security as anybody else. And that can’t be taken from us because of a location, or where we are. We’re always safe, if we’re under the wings of God.
And that’s, I think, what we have to realize and pray about, rather than thinking, okay, they’re in more danger than we are—if they live in Lebanon, they have no safety. The job for the people who are in the United States, or in a safer part of the world, is to know the safety for those other people. That’s how we can help.
And so I hope that the gentleman or the lady in England knows that, and knows that we are supporting and praying and knowing the safety of everyone. That’s how we help each other. We hold our brother’s hand.
spirituality.com host: Yes. I love Psalm 139, which talks about God’s omnipresence, and if you don’t mind, I’d just like to read a couple of verses of it.
Candace: That’d be great.
spirituality.com host: It seems appropriate in this particular context. “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” I’ve often gotten a great deal of comfort from that when I’ve had friends traveling, or I’ve been traveling. That presence of God—no matter where you are, no matter what’s going on, right there is the presence of God.
Candace: Exactly. It’s always there, and it’s for everyone. It’s a law that we’re safe, and that’s what we can trust. We can help others know that, and we can pray and know that, and that helps everybody.
We’ve seen good things happen when something comes on the news and everyone prays. We’ve seen people be saved from bad situations through prayer. I think the world is catching on to that. That’s how I feel. When a report comes on TV, I think, okay, we’re all praying together. I never feel that I’m the one lone pray-er out there. I feel a great sense that other people are having good thoughts and praying and being close to God. And that’s really wonderful.
spirituality.com host: I think you’re absolutely right. In fact, thinking back to 9/11, the early reports were for much higher casualties than there actually were. That’s not saying that the number should be taken lightly, but still, there was the result of prayer. People were found, and all kinds of things happened that helped to make that number somewhat less than it was expected to be at first.
Candace: And I think that happened with Katrina, also. So there is a power there, and we need to start knowing that and being aware of it. Even though we’re afraid, we can still know that others are praying and that will bless us.
Our prayers are effective, too, even if we are afraid when we’re praying, and they will lessen the fear. Because the verse I read earlier from Proverbs says that the fear is the snare, not the incident. God’s right there, saving, rescuing, helping. As we see that better and better, our prayers will be more and more effective. And we’re learning how to do that.
spirituality.com host: Danny from Springfield, although he doesn’t tell us which Springfield, says, “I can imagine this will have a large effect on international relations. Do you have any suggestions for calming agitation?”
Candace: One thing about having this instant world is that one event impacts another. And so that looks bad. And yet, I think as we all join in prayer, we’ll see those things lessened, and the impact will bless.
I think in Katrina, where all the people were moved around and found new homes in other parts of the country, who knows what the impact of that’s going to be. It was a huge movement of people. There can be good from that, as well.
Sometimes the impact has a blessing that comes down the road much further, as people have opportunities to change and grow, although they’re not always pleasant. I know in my own life, I’ve had a lot of opportunities that I wouldn’t have thought of, and didn’t seem good at the time. But certainly I grew and was blessed by praying through them.
While we don’t like going through these upheavals—somebody said it looks like there’s one after another—we’re ready. We’ll know what to do. We will know as we pray. God will tell us. And so God told me today I need to be a true witness. He may tell you something different.
But that’s what we need to listen for, and then do our part. We can’t really do somebody else’s part. But individually, our thinking ripples out beyond national borders. And we don’t need to get on a plane to pray for some other part of the world. We really have something very wonderful that doesn’t need those material helpers to get some place or to heal. I think that’s something we’re learning as the world grows closer. If our thought is filled with love and strength and courage and grace and truth, that has power.
spirituality.com host: And now with the Internet, people can pray in response so quickly. You can pray immediately because you find out almost immediately. That is powerful.
Candace: And then there’s the power of the bloggers. These are all new things that we haven’t been able to use before. I think that’s part of the result of the prayers that have gone before. And we have to make sure we use those in a good way, not abuse them. As we watch the news shows that are the most reliable and thoughtful and in-depth, those other shallower things will fade away.
spirituality.com host: Magda in Houston is asking, “With major travel weekends coming up, like Labor Day, should we just pray for our own safe travel, or for everyone’s? Can you suggest some ways to do this?”
Candace: Usually we just pray for our own or ourselves, maybe along the lines of “Okay, I hope I get there and everything’s okay, and God will be with me.”
But as we begin to see that we’re part of something bigger and we can pray for everybody’s safety, I think that has more power. As a practitioner, when you’re trying to work with a particular case, you sometimes find yourself praying for that whole idea to be healed rather than just this one person having a certain condition. You pray for the whole world. And it brings healing. So you want to go big.
If you’re just praying for your one little plane, and there’s a whole world of planes out there, you want to know that there’s harmony for everybody, and that everything’s done at God’s command. And if anybody’s trying to do something that’s not legitimate, that can be revealed. So there’s a lot that you can pray about. And just that idea of harmony and grace in everything you do.
I had a time where I flew to Chicago, and there was a huge snow storm. Probably everybody who’s flown through Chicago has had that experience at one time. The planes were not going out. I made friends with another girl. I noticed she had a Bible, and she was praying all day. So I thought, Well, I better get busy. So we just prayed for several hours sitting next to each other. And then she left.
In a few minutes, she came back and said, “There’s one plane, and it’s going out at Gate…,” let’s say 22. “Why don’t you check it out?”
I went over to that gate, and somebody was standing there, just yelling at the person, saying, “I need to get on this plane!” And she said, “No, I’m sorry.” So that person went away. Then she said to me, “Would you like to get on?” And I said, “Yes, I would.” She said, “Well, go right on. I think it’s going to take off.” But she didn’t let the ungraceful person on. She just said, “No.” She didn’t say, “We don’t have any room,” she just said, “No.”
So I went on, and the pilot came on and he said, “God is good. We’re the last plane out.” We were pretty much the only people left around. A lot of them had gone to motels. So it wasn’t that there were people stranded. I think they’d made arrangements for everybody. But I really needed to get where I was going, and it was just a lovely sense of grace that got me on the plane. I saw that very clearly. But the person I’d prayed with all day also had that grace and love, and helped me.
I’ve traveled a lot with my job, and mostly that was the only real problem I ever had. I can say that, from praying before I flew. It just opens doors. And being graceful and having grace and being patient.
So there are a lot of qualities that you can develop in yourself as you’re traveling—patience and humility and strength and perseverance. That’s all important, too, for your growth.
But as you pray about others, you’re not just leaving it at that.
spirituality.com host: Actually, you’ve answered Julie from London who has asked if you have any examples from your own experience of using prayer to overcome fear while traveling. And I think you’ve just answered that question. But we’re thankful to Julie for asking it anyway.
Candace: I’ve learned to love flying, and to love every moment of it, and everybody I sit by. When I first started flying, sometimes, as I said, I was air sick—I got over that. Then my next step was, I was a little afraid if somebody sat by me and they were really sick. I thought, Will I get that? And finally coming to the place where I had no fear of that and could heal the other person.
So you can make great progress in traveling that isn’t even about the journey, but about holding hands with your fellow man.
spirituality.com host: Oh, that’s lovely. Angela in St. Louis is asking, “Do you have any ideas on how to explain the situation to children watching the events on TV?”
Candace: That’s a good question.
spirituality.com host: And she has a second one, which is, “And how do you offer a spiritual understanding to the situation without creating an “us” and “them” point of view?” Those are both good comments.
Candace: Well, I did call my child this morning, but she’s grown up, so she pretty much explained it to me. But I just think it’s knowing that there’s somebody watching over them. I think that has just as much power for a child as it does for an adult. And to know that we can all pray. I don’t try to hide those things from my children, but I don’t have to make it graphic.
I can say, “There’s been a problem in England. They’ve caught the people, and it looks like things are good. And there are going to be some people who may need to get where they need to go, and maybe we could support that.”
To have the sense with your children that, yes, there’s a problem, but we’re into the solving part of it. I think these situations are so hard for people because there’s nothing they can do humanly. They can’t rush to England and take people into their home, or something. And so that’s part of the problem, why it makes you so uncomfortable.
But as you begin to see that praying is something you can do, and thinking correctly, and witnessing correctly, is something you can do—and affirming life and affirming love and the truth of God’s goodness—those are things children do beautifully, and they love to help.
So I wouldn’t make it a huge thing in their life, but if it comes up, I would just be honest. But honest from the full-glass point of view, rather than, “Oh, boy, things are bad.” You want your children to not be afraid, but to be involved in the solution. I think that, to me, is really important.
spirituality.com host: Now what about the second part? “How do you offer a spiritual understanding to the situation without creating an “us” and “them” point of view?
Candace: I think the main way to do that is not to have an “us” and “them” point of view yourself. Then the right words will come. As you know, we’re all brothers and sisters. You’ll be able to communicate that in your own words. You might do it very differently than I would. But I think if you have an “us” and “them” mentality, that’s what you have to get rid of. If you don’t have that, you’ll be able to communicate just the right thing in the right way.
Of course, we don’t want to have an “us” and “them.” We want to have that sense of oneness with God. And then they’ll have that too. I don’t think that’s as hard as it seems sometimes. It’s just fear that would make us let things get polarized.
As we know there is no “us” and “them,” that will help Lebanon and Israel. It helps everything as we know that we’re co-existent with God, and that our thought comes from this divine Mind, this divine authority, this Love.
And we can trust that—that every time we’re on a plane, that we’re communicating with a child, that we’re working these things through in conversation in our daily lives, we will know what to do, because we’re listening.
And so to those on the Internet today, I just have to trust that God gave me the messages that I need to say to you. And then I think you’ll have the messages you need, once you start working, then, to share in your lives. So that’s the trusting. And that’s what brings safety, because you always will know what to say and what to do. You don’t have to know right this minute.
spirituality.com host: That’s great. Maria is writing from Tokyo.
Candace: Oh, hello!
spirituality.com host: And she says, “I will be taking a 10-hour international flight over to the United States in a few days. The whole belief about certain people ‘out there’ trying to do something outrageous up somewhere while flying seems to trigger much imagination that something ‘evil’ can ever be present somewhere out of reach. I think that we should not entertain imagination about evil being able to dwell in certain people, certain space, but resist. We need to claim and see only God’s allness, being absolutely firm.” I think that’s a nice comment.
Candace: That’s beautiful. Thank you. Exactly right.
spirituality.com host: And this is from Mina in London, and she says, “I love the witness thing you brought up. Can I do the witness thing even if I don’t believe in God?”
Candace: I think you can, because as you see who people really are, as you witness to their goodness, their intelligence, their strength—whatever you’re witnessing to, that’s the truth about them. If you’re witnessing about stuff that’s negative, that really isn’t the truth about them—because really, everybody has that true identity that I saw in that cab driver. And that’s what we’re looking for. And so we even have to see that in these people who have been arrested. We have to see beyond that false picture, and see the true picture. I think we can all do that.
spirituality.com host: Candace, do you have any last comments you’d like to leave us with?
Candace: Well, it’s been so wonderful just to think through this together. And your questions, I think, really offer us new avenues for prayer. So I’m going to know you all will be thinking about this, praying about it, and witnessing, and it will be fun to see the fruitage that comes from that, and that we’ll all be holding hands today. Much love to you all.
Citations used in this chat
Science and Health
King James Bible