Drawing on his experiences as a childhood burn survivor, John O’Leary discusses being an overcomer and how he inspires others to live aspirational lives.
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[MUSIC PLAYING]
Well every adult can
remember being told as a kid,
don't play with fire.
John O'Leary is no exception,
except John didn't listen.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
NARRATOR: John O'Leary
was just 9 years old
when he suffered severe
burns to 100% of his body.
He had seen some older kids
playing with gas and fire,
so he tried it in
his parents' garage.
Recovery was painful
and demanding,
but he vowed to press on.
With little muscle
tissue left in his legs
and all of his
fingers amputated,
he learned again how
to walk and write.
Now as a motivational
speaker, John
inspires others to
live life fully.
In his new book,
On Fire, he shares
key choices we can make to
positively transform our lives
and the lives of others.
And please welcome to the 700
Club for the very first time,
John O'Leary.
John it's good to see you.
Wendy, what an honor.
Thrilled to be with you.
Well John, you've lived
every kid's nightmare,
every parent's worst nightmare.
You set yourself on fire.
Let's go back to
that day when you
were 9 years old in
your neighborhood.
What happened?
Yeah so I had seen little
boys in my neighborhood playing
with fire and gasoline
about a week earlier.
And I assumed if
they could do it,
so could I. That's pretty
typical male behavior,
by the way, at this young age.
So I went into my garage
early on a Saturday morning.
My mom and dad were gone.
Walked over to a five
gallon can of gasoline,
bent down next to it, lit a
piece of cardboard on fire,
bear hugged the container--
WENDY GRIFFITH: Oh my gosh.
--and very carefully
tipped and poured.
Before the liquid even shows
up, Wendy the fumes come out.
They grab the flame,
pull it back in.
It creates this
massive explosion,
splits the can in
two, picks me up,
launches me 20 feet against
the far side of the garage,
changes my life forever.
I mean you're lucky
that just the impact,
the explosion didn't kill you.
But then you're-- so you're
completely on fire from head
to toe.
Yes.
WENDY GRIFFITH: You
run into your house.
Yes.
Your sisters, your
two sisters scream.
Yes.
And your brother, Jim,
though he knew what to do.
Yeah, but he was not prepared--
WENDY GRIFFITH: Sure.
--to do this.
He's 17, he's sleeping
in the basement.
I remember standing on
top of a rug in my mom
and dad's front hall, just
screaming and praying,
God, I need a hero.
I will take anybody.
WENDY GRIFFITH: Wow.
I'll take anybody.
And my brother Jim,
17, races toward me
and I remember thinking,
God anybody else.
Not this guy.
I need someone who can do
something massive here,
someone who can move mountains
here, not a 17 year old boy.
WENDY GRIFFITH: Right.
And yet God can use us all.
I think Jim is proof of that.
He picks up a rug, beats down
the flames, saves my life.
And it was winter, right?
So he took you outside and
rolled you in the snow?
Exactly.
He carries on the outside like
a baby, throws me on the grass,
jumps on top of me, and
becomes my hero that day.
OK, so at this point
you're probably still--
you're in shock,
but you're alive.
You get-- your
brother calls 911.
Your parents aren't home.
Right
So now you're alone,
in this ambulance,
on the way to the hospital.
You get to the hospital,
your mom shows up.
Right.
You know, I remember laying
in the hospital bed, Wendy,
by myself.
I have no clothes, I have
no skin, I'm looking down
it's all a mess.
So, I shut my eyes
and as a nine year
old the thought was,
oh my gosh, my parents
are going to kill me.
They're going kill me.
And then I hear my mom's voice.
She walks in and she
takes my right hand,
she pats my bald head, and she
says, words I'll never forget,
I love you.
WENDY GRIFFITH: Aww.
And I remember looking
back and saying,
mom knock it off with the love.
Am I going to die?
WENDY GRIFFITH: Wow.
You asked her, am
I going to die?
Yeah.
And I assumed Wendy she
would say, no honey.
You're fine.
We'll get you out
here this afternoon,
we'll swing you
through a drive-thru
and get you a milkshake
on the way home.
You'll get a milkshake, right.
And instead she spoke
truth into my life,
which I think we all need a
heavy dose of politically,
relationally--
WENDY GRIFFITH: Yeah.
--in all aspects of our life.
She took my right hand in
hers, she patted my bald head,
she looked me in the eyes, and
she says, do you want to die?
WENDY GRIFFITH: Wow.
Your choice, not mine.
And I remember saying,
Momma, I do not want to die.
And her response back was, good.
Baby, then look at me.
You take the hand of God, you
walk this journey with him,
and you fight like you
have never fought before.
And on this morning January
17th, day one of the journey,
we committed our lives to
taking in the hand of God,
walking the journey
with him, and fighting
like we've never
fought before, and it's
a fight that continues.
Well John, that was the
beginning of the fight, right?
You made a decision,
I'm going to live.
But it was a painful fight.
I'm sure there were times
you wondered, is it worth it?
I mean, you went through--
you were in the hospital
five months?
Yeah, exactly right.
And then after that, another
excruciating eight months
at home just trying
to recover after that.
You lost all of your fingers--
JOHN O'LEARY: Yes.
WENDY GRIFFITH: --in that
fire and that explosion.
And I remember when the
doctor amputated my fingers,
I thought that was
the end of my life.
And the doctor came in that
night and he said to me, John,
I have not taken your life.
I've given it to you.
You may not become a
courtroom reporter,
but you can become a judge.
You may be able
to be a carpenter,
but you can become a
general contractor.
And then he said, you
may not any longer
play for the St.
Louis Cardinals,
but you could become
their manager,
or you could even
become their owner.
The doctor said that to you?
Yes, just taking the time
to love me where I was.
I love that.
What an amazing doc-- there's a
lot of good doctors and nurses
out there that help us
through times like that.
So tell us about some of the
turning points in your recovery
because you learned
to write again.
JOHN O'LEARY: Yes.
Which is amazing.
So tell us about some
of the turning points.
So the first big turning
point after coming home
from the hospital, was
that night of celebration.
We had been through
this miraculous story,
from death to life.
When you're burned on
100% of your body, Wendy,
you are going to die.
And sort of come home from
that is-- hey it's a miracle.
So I'm at home.
My mom's over here,
my father's over here,
and my five siblings are
around me at this table.
They've rebuilt our house, the
family has come back together.
My mom made my favorite
meal, it's in front of me.
The problem was I can't eat
it because I don't have hands.
And my favorite sister, Amy, I
know she's watching right now,
she watches every day.
She scoops up some potatoes,
brings it toward my mouth,
and then I mean mother
looks at my sister
and says, Amy, you
drop that fork.
WENDY GRIFFITH: Ooh.
If John's hungry,
he'll feed himself.
Tough love, right there.
But that was what
you needed, right?
It is exactly what I needed.
She ruined dinner.
The party was over.
But I think on day one,
she taught me not to die.
WENDY GRIFFITH: Right.
When I came home
from the hospital,
she taught me how
to really live.
That is an amazing.
Well John you have really lived.
I mean, you are married
to a beautiful wife,
you have four kids, you're
a motivational speaker,
you're an author, you're
teaching us how to live.
In fact your book is called,
appropriately enough, On Fire.
Right.
The seven chronicles to ignite
a radically inspired life.
And I love what someone
said on the title.
Reading this book is like
having a good friend look
you square in the eye and say,
the time to be brave is now.
I love that.
What do you mean by that?
Most of us are going through
life at best on cruise control.
We live a very accidentally.
We wake up, we do our
thing, we go to bed,
and we're not even
extraordinarily
intentional in our prayer
life, in our faith life,
in our finances, in
our relationships,
in our marriages.
This book is a cry
out for people to wake
up, to realize the
miracle in front of them
each day, to not
take it for granted,
and to live their best today.
And if they're
blessed with tomorrow,
awesome, but don't
wait for it to come.
Live it right now.
You talk about seven choices
to a radically inspired life.
Can you mention a
couple of those for us?
So the first one is
accountability, which
gets an ugly rap these days.
We love entitlement.
Give it to us, give it
to us, give us hope.
But hope is not a strategy.
Accountability allows us to do
our next best thing right now.
Don't wait for tomorrow,
live it right now.
Do you mean
accountability like to
your-- between-- to yourself,
to-- between you and God,
or like having an
accountability partner?
The answer is yes.
[LAUGHING]
It is to get off the
cross, to burn the wood,
and to realize that's already
been taken care of for us.
WENDY GRIFFITH: OK.
So-- it yes.
We need accountability to
God, we need accountability
for what we say so
we actually do it,
and we did an accountability
partner to do it with.
We can't do life
well by ourselves.
So that's probably
my favorite choice.
But then later on, I
talk about this shift
from being a victim to life--
WENDY GRIFFITH: Yeah.
--to being a victor.
From asking the
question, why me?
Why was I burned?
Why do I have these back pains?
Why do I always struggle?
To asking the question, why me?
Why am I so blessed?
Why did you die for my sins?
Why am I still alive?
Why can I show up today to
see the sun rising in the east
and eventually
setting in the west?
The cherry blossoms
are blooming.
I have a lot to be
grateful for and today I
choose to act like it.
And you have four kids and--
Yeah.
--I know are they watching?
Are they--
They are absolutely watching.
Mom has them out of
school, I'm sure.
They're all sitting
around saying,
what is dad doing
on TV right now?
So I love you guys.
I have three boys
and a little girl.
I married well above
my level, her name
is Elizabeth Grace,
my wife Beth.
She is gorgeous on
the inside and out.
I have an awesome family
and today I know it.
And the first time
you met Elizabeth,
you said she took
you by the hands?
Yeah, gosh, you read it all.
So, you know, one of
my concerns growing up
was will any little
girl ever be able to see
past the outer shell?
WENDY GRIFFITH: Yeah.
Will anybody ever be able
to take these hands that
are obviously so broken?
And I met Beth that
first night, we danced.
We were friends, but we danced.
We partied, we had a blast.
We were friends for years,
but she kept taking my hands.
And eventually she took not
only my hand as a friend,
but my hand as a partner,
my hand as a spouse,
and she continues to
take my hand today.
WENDY GRIFFITH: You've
been dancing ever since.
We have been partying
and dancing ever since.
Well we're-- I'm getting
a wrap because I can't stop
interviewing you because it's so
amazing and it is a fascinating
story.
And I know you want
to hear more about it,
so just pick up a
copy of John's book.
It is called On
Fire, seven choices
to ignite a radically
inspired life.
John, you are a blessing.
God bless you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.