{"id":3048,"date":"2023-10-05T09:18:50","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T13:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3048"},"modified":"2023-10-05T09:18:50","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T13:18:50","slug":"grace-under-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/05\/grace-under-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Grace Under Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>
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Just 69 days into his presidency, Ronald Reagan was nearly killed by an assassin\u2019s bullet.\u00a0
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The outcome of that event, interestingly, is that the 70-year-old Reagan, while at his weakest, took on an aura of formidable strength, even while one of his \u201cstrongest\u201d cabinet members appeared to falter before the watching world.
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On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. fired six bullets in the space of 1.7 seconds as Reagan exited the Washington Hilton Hotel.
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Two of the Devastator bullets, designed to inflict maximum damage, missed.\u00a0 One hit press secretary James Brady.\u00a0 Another hit a DC police offer.\u00a0 Yet another hit a Secret Service agent.
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The sixth bullet bounced off the presidential limo and entered Reagan\u2019s body under his left arm.\u00a0 It lodged in his lung, just one inch from his heart.
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At first Reagan believed himself to be unhurt.\u00a0 But as the limo raced toward the hospital, the gravity of his situation gradually became evident.\u00a0 After walking into the ER under his own power, the president collapsed.\u00a0 \u201cI feel really awful.\u00a0 I can\u2019t breathe.\u201d
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His heart was barely pumping.\u00a0 The attending physicians would later report that they feared for his survival.
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What many Americans remember about that day was Ronald Reagan\u2019s amazing sense of humor.\u00a0
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As doctors prepared him for life-saving surgery, the president turned to Jerry Parr \u2013 the Secret Service agent who had thrown him onto the back seat of the limo \u2013 and said, \u201cI hope they\u2019re all Republicans.\u201d
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Dr. Joseph Giordano \u2013 a lifelong Democrat who would ultimately locate and remove the bullet from Reagan\u2019s body \u2013 replied, \u201cMr. President, today we are all Republicans.\u201d\u00a0
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When a distraught Nancy Reagan arrived at the hospital and rushed to his side, her husband removed his oxygen mask and said, \u201cHoney, I forgot to duck.\u201d\u00a0 He then scribbled a note to one of the nurses, using the old W.C. Fields line: \u201cAll in all, I\u2019d rather be in Philadelphia.\u201d
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This is called grace under fire.\u00a0 In Reagan\u2019s case the \u201cunder fire\u201d part was literally true.
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Grace under fire is that special quality of leadership by which someone becomes a non-anxious presence, even in the midst of chaos.\u00a0 It helps bring centeredness and calm to others.
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Meanwhile, at the White House, things were anything but calm.
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Leaders of the Soviet Union, hearing the news that Reagan had been shot, immediately moved their nuclear submarines closer to the American coast.\u00a0 Vice President George H.W. Bush, who would himself one day be the Chief Executive, was on a jet returning from Texas.\u00a0
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Who was making strategic decisions?\u00a0 Who had access to the Football, the briefcase with America\u2019s nuclear launch codes?
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Tough-minded Secretary of State Alexander Haig decided to fill the gap.\u00a0 Completely forgetting (or ignoring) the chain of command as specified in the Constitution, Haig stepped before live TV cameras in the press room and announced, \u201cAs of now, I am in control in the White House.\u201d
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Several reporters in the room actually laughed.\u00a0 Haig looked pale.\u00a0 Fretful. \u00a0Anything but in control.\u00a0 That moment of anxious, grab-the-bull-by-the-horns \u201cleadership\u201d actually raised the country\u2019s level of anxiety.\u00a0
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And it doomed Haig\u2019s dreams of winning any future national elections.
\u00a0
Are you in the midst of stress and chaos this week?\u00a0 Ask God for the gift of Spirit-empowered grace under fire.\u00a0
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\u201cDon\u2019t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God\u2019s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It\u2019s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life\u201d <\/em>(Philippians 4:6-7, \u201cThe Message\u201d).\u00a0
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You can be a non-anxious presence that will help bring God\u2019s peace to others. \u00a0
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And you won\u2019t even have to deliver clever one-liners.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0Just 69 days into his presidency, Ronald Reagan was nearly killed by an assassin\u2019s bullet.\u00a0\u00a0The outcome of that event, interestingly, is that the 70-year-old Reagan, while at his weakest, took on an aura of formidable strength, even while one of his \u201cstrongest\u201d cabinet members appeared to falter before the watching world.\u00a0On March… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3049,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[394,179],"class_list":["post-3048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-peace","tag-prayer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3050,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3048\/revisions\/3050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}