DIVORCING A 300-YEAR-OLD PIRATE GHOST

Many marriages learn to thrive with the challenge of age differences. But what about a 300-year age difference? Evidently, it presents obstacles too great to overcome, as a 46-year-old Irish woman discovered. Amanda Sparrow Large Teague "married" the ghost of a 300-year-old Haitian pirate known as Jack Teague in early 2018. Less than a year later, she announced they had called it quits. The couple "met" in 2015, and after "dating" for three years, she demanded he make an honest woman out of her. She paid nearly $7,000 to legally change her name. Claiming they enjoyed an active sex life, she purported they even experienced a pregnancy scare. In addition, she published an article on having "ghost sex sessions." 

According to Mrs. Teague, Jack was hanged in 1753 for piracy, as he was attempting to rescue slaves from bondage. Researchers have found no historical evidence for the supposed existence of Jack Teague. A self-acknowledged "white witch" and "spirit worker", she warns, "Be VERY careful when dabbling in spirituality, it's not something to mess with." You may wish to seriously consider that warning! 

While there are many forms of "love", it is probably the most misunderstood word in the English language. I'm confident I'm not alone in my hesitation to reference a marriage between a 300-year-old pirate ghost and a living woman as "love". So what exactly is this "Many Splendored Thing", so often put to pen and tune? This short word has been the subject of thousands of volumes through the centuries. Yet few of these tomes rival Paul's description of love in I Corinthians 13. "Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy..."  Reading those words and the statements that follow, you discover love is not a passionate, mushy, sentimental feeling; in fact, it's not a feeling at all. It's an action. 

The best definition of "love" I've encountered is simply this: Love is "acting in another's best interest". I'm not disparaging romantic love. One book of the Bible (Song of Solomon) is devoted to that theme. But there's a deeper form of love. It's seen in the eyes of an elderly couple holding hands across a kitchen table. Or a young mom who wakes up in the middle of the night, choosing out of love, to change her baby's diaper. Or the tears of a friend, who with a hurting heart, says "no" to an addicted companion, and holds a strong boundary. Then there's the deepest form of love: the heartfelt longing placed within us for our Creator. This love will ultimately be fulfilled when we see Him "face to face". And it won't be a 300-year marriage. It will last for all eternity.