Zeno Charles-Marcel

AMEN 2006: The Right Arm, the Right Approach, Right Now

AMEN 2006 Plenary Sessions

Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

Do You Want to be Well? The Challenge of FAITH in Clinical Practice

This morning I have the real honor and the privilege of introducing our, our, our plenary speaker.

And, I'll tell you, I specifically requested that I be the 1 to introduce him because he's a personal friend and mentor of mine.

Now, cause you know, Charles Marcell is someone I know well, having, sat under his, tutelage if the word, if I got the word, right.

But he taught me at my alma mater at Montemorlo University, most of my internal medicine courses, and supervised me through the clinical program as well.

And so I have come up always with a deep admiration for Dr.

He's a graduate of Howard University, trained at Loma Linda in internal medicine and had the opportunity to take up lucrative practice, I'm sure here in California and the United States, but he took the time to go down to Montemarolis to teach students like myself during the 1980s while I attended there.

Subsequent that he came back up here and I'd been at Loma Linda for a while, was at Lysol Center of America.

I've been trying to keep track of his itinerary all this time.

But now he's back at Montemarolis as the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences.

The most important thing I can say about Dr.

Charles Marsalis is he's a deeply spiritual person and he has a deep passion for the work of the right arm and I know I'm confident this morning he will deliver to us a message from the throne that will inspire us.

It's perhaps no coincidence that we just heard special music from a neurologist, because I'm going to mention a little bit this morning about a condition that we find in patients who have suffered strokes called hemineglect.

Anybody are familiar with that term, hemineglect?

There are individuals who, when they get dressed, for instance, will comb 1 side of their hair, fix 1 side of their face, put their clothes on on 1 side, and completely ignore the other side.

The question that I have is, do those people understand that they're missing a part?

That side could be on fire, they wouldn't have a clue.

In our church, do we care that we have hemi-neglect?

And for us, do we suffer from hemineglect ourselves as we expand the concept of health ministry, not just to professionals in health, but to every member of the Church the way it was originally described to us.

Well, just with that thought, let's pray.

Father in Heaven, you have said that when 2 or 3 are gathered in your name that you're there.

We claim that promise this morning and as we converse for a few minutes we pray that you'll hide me behind your superior wisdom and grace and knowledge and eloquence, and that your message would be the 1 that comes through.

I'd like you to turn in your Bibles, please, if you have, to the book of John, John chapter 5.

And while you're turning there, I'll tell you a little story.

I grew up Catholic and had my encounter with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when I was studying in Canada at McGill University.

And Needless to say, that radically changed my life.

And you know, at that time, as a novice Bible reader, I would read things in the Bible that I didn't understand, even though I thought I was a smart guy.

As a matter of fact, everybody told me I was a smart guy.

But I knew I lacked wisdom, and I wanted to get wisdom before I got gray hair.

But I would read things in the Bible and would try to understand what is it that was happening there.

And 1 of the places that I had some difficulty understanding was what I'm about to share with you here in this little passage in John chapter 5.

Here we have the story of the man at the pool at Bethesda.

Here is this man who had been sick for some 38 years.

Now put that in the context, he was sick for longer than Jesus had been alive.

And there he was at the pool and Jesus comes up to him And in verse 6, when Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he said unto him, wilt thou be made whole?

Now I put myself in that story and I'm thinking if I were sick for 38 years and somebody comes up to me and says do you want to get well, I wouldn't be able to contain myself to tell him, Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!

But it's really interesting how the man answers.

And you know that encounter in the Bible, It kind of worked on me for years, until I was doing my residency.

And I had a situation where I was dealing with some patients at the Veterans Hospital in Loma Linda.

And I had a young guy there, he had an accident and was discharged from the military and was receiving his veterans benefits.

And he came in to see me, he and his wife.

And I liked the guy and I thought this was going to be a really good thing.

He had an illness that was not difficult to treat, as far as, you know, treatments are concerned.

All he had to do was go and get the prescription, make a few changes in his life, and things would go alright.

But he didn't show up for clinic the next time we had an appointment.

And I was curious about that, and I got his number, and I called his home, and spoke to his wife, and his wife told me, well, you know, they're sorry, but They couldn't make it.

So I said, can we make another appointment?

Now this was not something that was commonly done, but I really had liked this guy.

So I called again and I asked, what's going on?

And he said, okay, okay, we're going to come.

This is now about 2, 2 and a half months later.

And they said that they were a bit kind of put back because they were ashamed that they hadn't come back to the clinic.

And the guy hung his head, and the wife nudged him, as sometimes the wives do, and she said, go ahead and tell the doctor, go ahead.

And he said, well, I didn't fill the prescription, and I haven't been doing the things that you told me.

And that's the reason why I didn't come back.

I was waiting until I got things done before I came back to see you.

I said, alright, it's okay, we'll do something.

And right away my mind went back to that text here.

And right away, my mind went back to that text.

I mean, it's now 2 months, 2 and a half months, that this is something that you can treat.

And you know, he didn't answer me and say, well yes, I want to get better.

He said, well you know, you told me that I had to make some changes, and I'm not so sure I'm ready to make those changes.

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Presenter

Zeno Charles-Marcel

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Do You Want to be Well? The Challenge of FAITH in Clinical Practice

49m

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