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“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Luke 6:38

The thrill of opening the fat envelope from my fiancé quickly turned into salty hot tears as I read the first paragraph:

“Dear Sherrie and Terri,

They say white lies are terrible, but I need to tell you both about my black lie. Terri, I am engaged to marry Sherrie. Sherrie, I have been having an affair with Terri while you have been back East looking for jobs for us. I’m so sorry how this hurts you both. I hope you can forgive me, but I understand if you don’t.”

Love, Chris

Terri dropped him like a hot potato as soon as she read the letter. My wedding dress was hanging in the closet. A priest had just agreed to officiate our ceremony, a miracle because he seldom went to Mass and I wasn't Catholic.

Chris had always made me feel like his one and only beautiful princess. How could a man who believed in God do this to me? I was shocked, wounded, and numb down to my bones. No way those bones wanted to forgive the cheater.

But God.

The Holy Spirit implored me to forgive him fully and quickly. Because I did so willingly, almost cheerfully, without resentment, grudges, or bitterness, I believe God has fulfilled the promise of Luke 6:38 in my life:

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

While this verse is often associated with money, Jesus had just been teaching about how to treat people with God's kind of love -- especially in extending forgiveness.

My friend Jenna, well-studied in the Bible, adds that the motivation to give – whatever one gives – needs to be love, not a desire for the rewards of giving. Her sister, Lynda, also a Bible whiz, adds that it’s not tit-for-tat in that if I give x, I will get x squared from the Lord.

How does one get to the capacity to forgive fully and freely? Though I didn’t know it at the time, I think God prepared me to react lovingly to Chris’ confession. I had been spending a lot of time in the Word, at Bible studies in church fellowship, with prayer partners, and was temporarily working for a Christian organization.

The holy strength that Jesus cascaded into me through all of that was the only reason I could reach forgiveness as my heart bled out.

Chris and I remained friends until God launched us into marriages more suited to each of us. For me, God “poured into my lap” the abundant life He promises His children, with a husband, four children, four grandchildren, a faith-filled extended family, and more testimonies of His love than I could ever count. Chris has always said that God also blessed him through my forgiveness because one of the interviews I’d set up for him back East -- after the letter -- eventually landed him into a fabulous job at the corporate headquarters of Boy Scouts of America.

It's not a "one and done" deal. The opportunity to respond to Chris with forgiveness in my 20’s gave me a strong foundation to step up to forgive far worse, even unspeakable, situations in the decades that followed.

When I struggle with forgiveness, I ponder the layers upon layers of forgiveness that God has extended to me. Only that unmerited love from Jesus frees me to forgive beyond my hurts and hard places.

Although He empathizes with how painful it can be to lay down pride and wounds, the Father also loves a cheerful giver. How He must delight in those who can grow into cheerful FORgivers!

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REFLECTION:

Can you recall the first time you ever forgave someone? What good things has God “poured into your lap” since then?

LIVING UNVEILED AND FREE:

Is there anyone or situation the Lord is convicting you to forgive today? Pray for the Spirit to shore you up with the will and ability to release your forgiveness to that person or circumstance.

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Meet Our devotion Writer:

Sherri Buscemi

Although firmly rooted in Appalachia, Sherrie Buscemi has called the Southwest home for four decades. Early in her career, armed with a degree in journalism, she served as a feature writer for numerous small newspapers in West Virginia, Virginia, and New Mexico. While those professional writings told stories of lives, her freelance work shares testimonies of God’s workings in lives.Sherrie married the love of her life, Stephen, in Tucson, where she changed careers to work in property management. In addition to family, missions and missionary care have always been their top priorities -- they even took leave of their jobs to serve in China for three years.With interests in the Bible and biographies; adoption and Asia; architecture and interior design; art and photography; poverty and housing; travel and trains, Sherrie tries to unpack them all out of the suitcase of God’s lavish love.The family has two dogs; two grandsons; and four daughters, called the 4H’s – Honour, Harmony, Haley and Holly. She currently lives in Rio Rancho, NM with her husband, their two youngest daughters, and the crazy canines.

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