AMEN 2013: Following the Leader

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

AMEN 2013: Plenary Sessions

Mark Finley

John Osborn

Remote Area Medical: Volunteers Mobilizing Healthcare & Conference Summary

Des Cummings

The Patient Experience 1

The Patient Experience 2a

The Patient Experience 2b

Mark Ranzinger

Following the Lamb

Robert Hayes

Healing the Right Arm

Larry Cohen

Iron Heart

Jerry Page

Final Breakthroughs

Don Bovell

Fred Hardinge

Kelly Kinsley

AMEN Short-term Missions

We have been talking largely about the doctor and the dentist, the health care providers, relationship to the patient.

We've looked at providing attention to the patient that comes, looking at the patient as a whole person.

We've talked about respect and sympathy and inspiring hope.

We've talked about making transitions into spiritual things.

But I want us to focus in this last session on 1 Bible passage that speaks specifically to the needs of medical providers.

I invite you to bow your heads as we pray in this last session asking God to do something special in our own lives.

Because the reality of the matter is that God can never do something through me until he does something to me.

He can never do something with me until he does something for me.

I can never be a true minister until I am ministered to.

So we want to focus on what was happening in Jesus' life before he met that woman and why he was able to minister.

Father, we thank you for the joy, for the privilege of ministering for the King of Kings.

Deeply embed upon our minds that we have a calling, not merely a profession.

Write upon the consciousness of our brains the sacredness of being a medical missionary for Jesus.

Teach us that just like you said to your disciples, that you have sent them into the world, that we are God sent, that the gifts you've given us in medical skills, that the specialties that you've let us in are divinely sanctified.

May we never lose sense in the complexity of modern medicine of our identity.

Reveal to us that we are Christian medical providers.

But even a step beyond that, reveal to us that we are Seventh-day Adventists with a mission and a message for a final generation to prepare a people for the return of our Lord physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Thank you for this calling and open our hearts to a special blessing in this last session today in Christ's name, amen.

I invite you to take your Bibles and go back to the story.

The story of a desperate woman who found hope.

The story of a guilt-ridden woman who found peace.

The story of a powerless woman who found strength.

The story of a lonely woman who found belonging, the story of a suspicious woman who found someone to trust, The story of an abandoned woman who was adopted.

The story of a Christ who looked beyond gender, who looked beyond social status, who looked beyond the conventional norms.

The story of a Jesus that reached out to minister in incredibly remarkable ways.

But I want to focus in this session not what was going on in her life, but what was going on in his life.

I want to focus not on her physical needs but his, not on her emotions but his, not what was going on with the patient but what was going on with the provider.

And we come to that in John the fourth chapter and the sixth verse.

I've left this verse intentionally for the last of our presentations this morning.

Jacob, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 sons of Jacob.

Jacob had purchased this piece of property.

It was a sacred piece of property by its very nature.

When Jacob died, he gave this piece of property to his son, Joseph.

When Joseph died, his bones were brought back and buried here.

This was a sacred spot, this was hallowed ground and here Jesus came to share the mysteries of eternity with a woman.

John 4 verse 6, Now Jacob's well was there.

Jesus therefore being wearied from his journey sat thus by the well and it was about the sixth hour.

Now you are well aware that Israelites often mark the hours of the day from sunrise in the morning.

And that the sixth hour would have been high noon.

Jesus began his journey that morning at sunrise, and he likely walked 15 to 20 miles, the best I could calculate it.

So here is Jesus, traversing Palestinian sands in the blazing sun.

Here is Jesus, who has walked 15 to 20 miles with little to drink.

He comes and rests at the side of a well.

The divine Son of God was weary, exhausted, and tired.

He had been up early in the morning and began his journey at sunrise.

He's traversed and arrived at Jacob's well.

I want you to capture the significance of this moment.

Imagine this scene, the creator of sun, moon, and stars, sweaty, dirty, thirsty, at the mercy of a stranger beside Jacob's well.

Imagine this scene, the 1 worshipped by angels, and praised by 10, 000 times 10, 000 heavenly beings, physically exhausted in a hostile land.

Imagine this scene, the 1 who hung worlds in space, leaning against the rough stones of an ancient well with his energy drained.

As divine, he created brooks and ponds and rivers and streams.

Remember, as human, he hungered for 40 days of fasting.

But as divine, he took 5 loaves and 2 fishes and fed the multitudes.

As human, he slept on a stormy sea, but as divine, he rose from the sleep and spoke 3 words and the tempest fell flat before him.

He was so human that he attended a wedding and he was so divine when he arrived there in the celebration that he transformed water into wine.

He was so human that he wept when his friend Lazarus died, but he was so completely divine that he walked to his tomb, spoke to the grave, and reunited Lazarus with his sisters.

I want to focus for a few moments not so much on the divine Christ, but on the human Christ.

I want to look at his weariness, his exhaustion, his tiredness in the context of his ministry.

And I want to focus too on your weariness, your tiredness, your exhaustion.

Because there are times that healthcare providers, there are times that physicians, there are times that dentists, Halfway through the day, about that 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock in the morning, you say, Pastor, I feel that way at 8.30 in the morning.

But there are those times in the day when you feel incredibly exhausted.

And there are times that you feel, I cannot see 1 more person sitting at the well that day.

Exhausted from travel, Thirsty and fatigued from the journey, Jesus ministered to a hopeless woman.

In the midst of hectic responsibilities, with full waiting rooms, and more patients to see than you feel capable of seeing.

Have you ever felt on the verge of burnout?

How could Jesus be in the midst of medical ministry with more to do than he was capable humanly of doing, with more patience to see than he was more capable of dealing with, with more blind eyes to heal, with more deaf ears to unstop, with more palsied arms to cure, with more surgeries to perform, if you please, by casting demons out of people.

Do we get any hint from any of the research that is being done on burnout among medical professionals of what buoys their spirits and encourages their hearts, and how do you apply that research to what was going on in Jesus' life?

Now, research over the last 10 years has shown that burnout is a particular constellation of emotional exhaustion, detachment, and a low sense of accomplishment, that that's widespread among medical students and doctors in training.

If you look at medical students, 1 medical student said to me, when I went to high school, it was like drinking from a water fountain.

When I went to college, it was like a fire hose turned on me.

But when I went to medical school, it was like I was standing underneath the waterfall and so much was gushing by me.

Burnout is common among medical students at med school.

But recently, we have now had 1 of the first major studies of burnout among fully trained doctors in a wide range of specialties.

Mayo Clinic let out in the study, some of you may be familiar with it, looked at 7, 000 physicians of a variety of studies.

Analyzing questionnaire sent to more than 7, 000 doctors, Researchers found that almost half complained of being emotionally exhausted, feeling detached from their patients, and work or suffering from a low sense of accomplishment.

The researchers then compared the doctors' responses with those of 3, 500 people working in other fields and found that even after adjusting for variables like gender, age, number of hours worked and the amount of education, the doctors were still more likely to suffer from burnout.

Now the interesting thing to me, The interesting thing to me was that half of the physicians surveyed, they weren't Adventists, they certainly weren't coming to Amen, but half of these physicians surveyed were experiencing burnout.

How does that impact the quality of life given to the patient?

Back to Menu

Series

AMEN 2013: Plenary Sessions

The Patient Experience 2b

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Whole Person Care: Tools for Incorporating Spiritual Care in a Busy Practice

1h 6m

Breakout Session C

What’s Lifestyle Got to Do With Your Eyes?

45m

Breakout Sessions B

Praying with Patients

59m

Medical

Touched by Grace: Building Community Through Compassionate Outreach and Church Planting

57m

Right Arm of the Gospel

51m

Experiencing Righteousness Through Faith in Christ

5. The Mind of Christ and the Impending Conflict

59m

Breakout Session C

Praying with Patients

51m

Have You Experienced His Strength

32m

Plenary

The 13th Disciple

1h

Encounters With Jesus

Jesus’ Encounters at the Cross

41m

Plenary

A Case Study in Faith

1h 12m

Sound Doctrine