Music and film icon Pat Boone shared how being baptized in the Holy Spirit gave him a second chance when his marriage with his late wife, Shirley, "nearly came apart."
Boone discussed with The Christian Post his upcoming film "The Mulligan." The movie was based on the popular book by Wally Armstrong and Ken Blanchard which entwined with golf-inspired life lessons. It was scheduled to debut in select theaters nationwide for two days on April 18 and 19 via ReelWorks Studios and Fathom Events.
"Mulligan," a word associated with golf, means a "do-over" or a second try after the first has gone awry, according to Golf Digest. Now 87 years old, Pat admitted that he needed such a second chance in his life. It's when his marriage to Shirley was about to crumble.
"In the game of life, God makes the rules and He can grant you mulligan's, second chances," he told CP in an interview.
"That's what the theme of this film is. It's all about golf. It's an exciting, well-made film about golf, the subject that millions of people love. But there are [very few] movies about golf. God can give you second chances, and if you make the right choices, you can have a far better life in this realm and in the one that's coming, inevitably, for all of us," he continued.
The artist described it as a "challenging season for him as a man and husband." He said having four kids at a young age caused his wife to become sick.
"There was a time after we moved to California and I was a big star and everything was going so great when I would simply put my arm around Shirley or want to kiss her on the cheek [and] she'd say, No Way! Every time we have any kind of affection, for some reason, I get nauseous, and I can't help it."
He said, "If this is where our marriage is going, she's going to get sick every time I try to be amorous. This is not going to last."
It went on for a while since his wife refused to see a doctor until the couple began attending a church. When Shirley had her checkup, the doctors discovered ovarian cysts that developed after she gave birth to her children. She underwent an operation and then went back to being affectionate again with his husband.
"That trouble led to us receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which as good, churchgoing Christians, we were taught that all those wonderful supernatural things that happened to Christians in the first century, were not for today," he said.
"We weren't expecting anything supernatural in our lives, but now as we experienced the deliverance from this malady, [we] see even the pain and the suffering for a while had its purpose. [It] not only show[ed] us there needed to be something corrected, which would have gotten worse and worse in her life, ... but also during that time, we learned that we could have the supernatural indwelling of the Holy Spirit through the baptism of the Holy Spirit," he continued.
Their marriage lasted for 65 years, with her wife going home to God at the age of 84.
Pat also shared with 700 Club that he was delighted knowing that people still recognized his works even at old age. For him, it was the Lord's work in his life when God diverted his career into encouraging more people through his platform.
