A Bizarre Meeting with a Messenger of God (With a Dash of Whiskey)

Since moving to Spain, strange things have started to happen.

It all started when Ingela and I were walking at the beach when we walked past a couple whose phone started ringing.

Normally this isn’t weird at all, but their ringtone was Sweet Child o’ Mine with Guns N’ Roses.

The exact same ringtone I have on my cellphone. Ingela and I looked at each other and started laughing.

These sort of coincidences are weird, confusing and fascinating at the same time.

Then one night when we were out taking an evening stroll with our dog, we walked past one of those open restaurants.

It’s very similar to a regular restaurant, but they also serve people on the street. Almost like a drive thru, but with more class.

As we walked past this restaurant a female customer walked up and the guy behind the counter yelled “HENRI!”

Now, I didn’t know any of the people that worked in this restaurant, nor the customers that were eating there. Again, Ingela and I looked at each other and laughed.

The Messenger

Today we decided to find a small park with a bench where we could sit and enjoy the sun. About 40 minutes passed until a guy came to us and said he was going to tell us something.

At first we thought he was going to ask for money, but then he asked if I believed in God. I could smell whiskey in his breath, so I thought going along with him was the wisest choice.

The most honest answer I could come up with while still going along with him was “maybe, it depends on your definition of God” at which point he started muttering and becoming irritated.

He started saying that he knew all about me. God was working through him as he was telling me to appreciate my girlfriend and not take her for granted.

At this point I was confused and somewhat annoyed. I am not a fan of being lectured, and I can’t say I like drunken people either. I noticed my irritation, and to my surprise he said “if you want to punch me in the face, go right ahead” which surprised me.

I told him I’m not in the punching people in the face business. At that moment I took a deep breath and relaxed. I reminded myself that there’s no reason to get upset, which made me a bit more playful.

The Death Threat

He told me to look after Ingela and marry her, that we were some day going to have children and have a nice house.

He then started talking about the fact that he could kill me right then and there to help me see that God exists. I didn’t get the feeling that he was going to hurt me, so I wasn’t alarmed, but it was somewhat uncomfortable.

At this point I started getting angry, so I took another deep breath. I realized that the best way to get rid of this guy was to play along and not encourage him, at least not too much .

I started wondering why exactly this was happening. I’m not a big believer in coincidences, so naturally I thought that there had to be a reason.

When I can’t find a reason to something, I leave it alone, because if there is something there that I should learn it usually comes to me sooner or later.

The Escape

After about 15 minutes he started wrapping up. He shook my hand and said “God loves you.”

He started walking away and that was that. Ingela and I looked at each other and laughed. As we started walking back to our apartment, I noticed a lingering irritation in my body.

I can’t stand feeling like crap, so I went into our bedroom and began meditating on what happened. The conclusion I reached was that my anger and irritation was caused by a lack of control of the situation.

I think this has to be very common in men. I felt the urge to be aggressive and take “control” over the situation, but I realized that was the wrong way to go about things.

Besides, I’m a pretty small guy, so my chances were probably not that great in a fight. On top of that, fighting is always a lose-lose proposition.

Instead of getting serious and angry, I was able to relax and look at it more playfully. I’ve noticed a theme since I moved to Spain and that theme is letting go of needing control over everything.

It started with not having control over the situation when we first arrived here and other small events keep emerging, but I feel more and more relaxed about everything.

I have the desire to resolve any issues that are going on in my own body, so I usually meditate and use EFT to clear up irritations, fears and other blocks.

Life can throw weird experiences at you, but I believe there’s always something you can learn from each and every one of them. In this instance I needed to let go of needing control.

Image by Trey Ratcliff

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