Burn To Shine

You’ve Got To Burn To Shine

To shine, you have to burn.

One doesn’t happen without the other.

Most people fear the burn because it hurts.

To be successful, you have to understand that, in Christ, you’re already dead.

We aren’t much use to others without some cost to ourselves.

Years ago, KEZI hired a consultant to analyze the on-air staff.

I refer to consultants as insultants and have little use for them, but that’s another story.

This one-man band determined I was the weak link on the anchor desk.

Station management came to me and said they were looking for my replacement, but I would continue to anchor the news until they found him.

I was devastated.

Every night, I would sit in that chair knowing they didn’t want me.

They brought in people vying for my job, and I knew it.

The rest of the staff and other news folks in town knew what was going on.

It was humiliating.

I go on stories, and my fellow reporters from other stations would look away.

Someone came to me and said, “You know, Rick, when you started following Christ, you died to yourself and live for Him.”

You can’t kill what is already dead.

Over the next year, many came through the door trying to replace me, but the station never hired anyone.

They brought in another consultant who actually did extensive research.

I didn’t know it at the time.

One year to the day, from the time they had tried to fire me, one of the consultants came to me and said, “ The station made a big mistake, and we told them you have the highest rating in the market, and they need to give you a raise and an apology.

They squeamishly did both.

During that year, I burned a lot.

I remember a message from God that told me not to fight them, but to go love the community with everything I had.

I spent that year emceeing every event I was asked to host.

I read at schools, emceed banquets, produced stories about people, not trying to save my job, doing it because that’s what God told me to do.

I thought my career was over.

The burn let me shine.

From that day forward, the raises were big, and my position was cemented at KEZI.

When I quit, the owners said, in a farewell speech, that management had a problem with me because I always stood up for my fellow workers, even at risk of losing my job.

I was a pain in their ass because I would tell them what they were doing wrong.

I wasn’t special, I was dead.

But most importantly, I knew it.

Someone asked me the other day, “How do you put up with all the mean comments on social media?”

My answer, I’m already dead.

How do you kill what isn’t living?

You want real power, give it up, let it burn, let Him shine through.