A New Day

By: Pastor Johnie Akers     

Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”  On March 30, 1981, Ronald Reagan was giving a speech to thirty-five hundred members of the AFL-CIO at the Washington Hilton.  John Hinckley Jr. was waiting outside for the President and fired six bullets at Mr. Reagan.  Although none hit him directly, it was later determined that a bullet ricocheted off of his limousine and pierced his chest underneath his left arm.  Though it was not immediately apparent that he had been shot, the President soon began coughing up blood.  Physicians at George Washington University hospital discovered that the bullet stopped within three inches of the President’s heart.  The chief surgeon at the hospital would later state that if the President had waited only five more minutes before arriving, he would have died.  Twelve days later, Mr. Reagan returned to the White House, and the President limited his schedule to only two morning meetings a day.  During that span of time, he only received one outside visitor.  It was Terence Cardinal Cooke of New York who spent one hour with him on Good Friday.  Michael Deaver would later write in his memoirs of the Reagan years that the President told the cardinal, “I have decided whatever time I have left is for Him.”  There are watershed moments in each of our lives where we discover what is really important in life.  A career that has been a mainstay for years is suddenly gone.  An unexpected medical report brings distressing news.  A loved one abruptly passes away.  These and other unanticipated events provoke us to stop and realize how fragile life is, and how vital it is that we have our priorities where they should be.  In fact, most of our pursuits are merely wood, hay, and stubble (1 Corinthians 3:12).  In the end, the only thing that really matters is our personal relationship with God, and how we have allowed Him to use us to touch the lives of others, with the opportunities He presents to us with each new day.