The Movie That Set The Plan In Motion. 

I’m sitting in my car in mid city LA and I'm in shock. I have just put two puzzle pieces together.

It’s the evening of October 21, 2014 and the next day I will be getting on a plane headed to Thailand.

The reason I am going to Thailand is because of Prince. (RIP)

Here’s how it all went down. Rewind with me real quick to 6 weeks earlier...

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September 6, 2014

In LA there is this organization called Cinespia that hosts outdoor screenings of movies in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. It’s a summertime event staple for any Angeleno. It’s a great outing where you and friends can bring picnic dinners, alcoholic beverages and enjoy watching a movie under the stars.

This week they are showing Prince’s 1984 rock drama PURPLE RAIN.

I LOVE Prince and had seen him perform earlier that year (Thank God!) it was an EPIC show, he played for 4 hours, 5 encores and with every single instrument on stage! But I digress...

I never got around to getting tickets to this sold-out event because I got consumed with preparing for Burning Man. And I was kind of stressed out about this (first world problems baby!) because the thing with Prince is that he loves surprises! AND Questlove is DJing the after party...I’m thinking this PURPLE RAIN screening could possibly equal surprise Prince concert!!!!! My friend Katherine was also celebrating her birthday there, which has a symbolism of it’s own value. I’ll tell you that part another time in a future chapter called: The Life-Changing Magic of Katherine Warnock.

So here’s the scene: Purple Rain is sold-out. I don’t have a ticket. I have accepted this and moved on with my life and made other plans. However on "the day of" my friend Hightimes posts (yes, I have friends with nicknames like that) that he now has an extra ticket! I have this moment inside where I’m like “crap, I already made plans to go to my friend’s party and I really don’t want to be an LA flake but….. this is Prince…anything related to Prince I have to go to right? That seems right to me.” So it was settled. I cancelled plans, switched gears and headed over to the cemetery.

Here’s the weird thing: I actually said to my friend Kara “I feel like something magical is gonna happen tonight.”

I was right. I was just wrong about what the “something" was.

Prince did not show up. It was just a normal Cinespia movie night. Here’s who did show up. This chick named Hanna.

This girl I "kind of knew" from around. We had mutual friends in Katherine and had been to many of the same friend outings and the such.

I remember I was in a conversation with someone when I saw her arrive and then I said out loud “I’m gonna go talk to Hanna now” which was kind of awkward socially, something I’m not really apt to be.

I walked over and said hi and we were doing chit chat and I was telling her about how “The Newsroom” (a TV show I was working on) had come to an end and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do next but that I really wanted to travel and I really wanted to go to Thailand.

Her: “I’m going to Thailand! Next Month!”

Me: “We should travel together!” thinking we would stay at hostels together and stuff.

And then she looked at me and just started saying “oh my God, you’d be perfect, you’d be perfect, you’d be perfect” I remember her saying that over and over. She gets out her phone. She starts giving me details on what she’s doing in Thailand, it was a missions trip “you should come!” She’s telling me things and texting the leader of this trip at the same time. She takes a photo of me and sends it to him.

Before I knew it, in a matter of a week, a Skype interview and a lot of last minute decision making, I have a ticket to Thailand. I am joining a venture called Thai 40. I will be traveling around the country with 12 strangers, 11 of them being graduates from the Bethel School of Ministry, the 12th being the Holy Spirit.

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SO. Let us return to me sitting in my car in shock in mid-city LA in October.

I have just parked in front of my house. Back from getting last minute things for my trip to Thailand and suddenly, out of nowhere, I remember something that happened 2 months ago. The memory just popped up.

That’s right, we are rewinding AGAIN. Even further back than that Cinespia night. (this is going somewhere, I promise)

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Sometime in July, 2014

A friend of mine had been having a hard time. Serious family issues and things. I invited her to come to church with me, I brought her so that people could pray for her. I had been popping in and out of this church called Vintage on the westside. Not exactly a dedicated church-goer or even believer at the time. You could say I was dating Jesus in a very non-committal casual LA way. A “seeing other people" kind of thing.

When the sermon was over, I gathered people that I respected to pray over her. I’m sitting with them as they pray, head down, eyes closed and this visual appears behind my eyelids. It’s an ariel view of a city, high rise buildings and there is this tidal wave coming for it, like something out of the movie “2012” and I hear this phrase spoken with it.

I’m sitting there a bit shaken like “What is happening right now? Is this a thing? Should I share this?"

Maybe I’m seeing this and feeling weird because I got high last night. No seriously, I got high, took a pill of molly and then took my friend to church the next morning. That’s just where I was in life.

So anyways back to the visual. It appears into my mind and there is this urgency feeling with it. Like a nervous energy and there is this pushy feeling inside of me going “SAY IT! SAY IT! SAY IT!” and my heart is pounding and it feels like I’m about to have a panic attack and I just burst out “I see a picture of something!"

And I look at my friend and say (with a bit of hesitation and a touch of drama) “LIGHTNING STRIKES AND PURPLE RAIN FLOODS THE CITY!”I look at her “does that mean something to you?” and I’m awaiting her response so full of energy and excitement because this might be the moment where I really believe that God is real! It’s all for sure real! Prayer works! We can hear God! This could be a message from God to her about her situation and this could change BOTH OF OUR LIVES FOREVER!!!!!

And she looks at me and says…. “No, not really”

Hello deflated soul.

Hello awkwardness.

Me internally: I gotta stop doing so much molly.

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FAST FORWARD back to me in the car. But now! Right now! While I am sitting here with a ticket to Thailand tomorrow, a ticket that I got BECAUSE 6 weeks ago I went to see the movie PURPLE RAIN…right now that phrase DOES MEAN SOMETHING!

It means something TO ME!!!!!

….

“LIGHTNING STRIKES AND PURPLE RAIN FLOODS THE CITY"

The puzzle pieces are clicking in.

The last minute chance of me going to a sold-out Purple Rain….the chance of Hanna inviting me… the chance of me saying yes to this mission trip….. is that the "lightning strikes" ?

WAIT…..hold up…hold. the. phone…..AM I the “PURPLE RAIN” in this???? …….ohhhhhh my gosh THAT would be SO BAD ASS if God nicknamed me Purple Rain!!!! Wait. What is the city? Is it a city in Thailand? Is the city LA? Am I flooding something? Or something about to FLOOD ME?

I guess... I could be “The City” but that is not as cool as me being "Purple Rain” so I decide I’m sticking with the former!

….Or…. is this just all a coincidence? Am I reading into this?

I’m telling you I just sat in my car in shock with all these thoughts flying through my mind. I think I sat there for a solid 10 minutes frozen in thought.

I come to the conclusion that at this point, I have no idea what is going on but it’s interesting and I am intrigued to say the least and while I could argue my way in and out of this meaning something, I can’t shake this weight that I feel around it all. And I'm nervous, in the best way.

***

This is how I got to Thailand.

This is how I encountered God.

Thanks for letting me give you the how…we’re about to get to the good stuff. The supernatural stuff. The stuff that is either going to inspire you, offend you or freak you out. You might even think I’m crazy. I’m OK with that. My job is to simply tell you the story. The choice of what you do with it is always yours. That is the gift of free will.

Rest assured of this: "I never meant to cause you any sorrow, I never meant to cause you any pain" ;)

NEXT UP: The Laws of Physics Break Before My Eyes

Fun Note: This Purple Rain photo, this is from the actual night I'm telling you about. I am in this photo somewhere, sitting on a blanket next to my friend Hightimes drinking wine and smoking a cigarette, thinking about this conversation I just had with Hanna. Feeling excited and wondering "am I going to Thailand?"