Adrian Serna
Episode 28

Narrator:

Welcome, friends, to another episode of The Story & Experience Podcast. Join your host, Japhet De Oliveira, with his guest today and discover the moments that shape us, our families and communities.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Welcome, friends, to another episode of The Story & Experience Podcast. I'm very excited to have a brand new guest today, and I can see his face. You can't, but I can see his face. And so, I'm excited about this. I'm excited to introduce you to him in a second. The way it works, if you're brand new to this, is that I'm going to ask a first 10 questions, really easy questions, like what's your name? He is going to share a few and answer these, and then he's going to select 11 to a 100, any one in those ranges, 100 is the most difficult, most open, most vulnerable, and he'll choose where he wants to go inside there. But, it's about our stories and experiences that shape us. So, without much further ado, let me dive in straight away and begin with the first question. Could you share your name and is there any difficulty with people pronouncing it or slaughtering it anyway?

Adrian Serna:

Oh. So my name's Adrian Serna and yeah, I constantly get Adrian Cerner just because... And being at Adventist Health, that's a common name, Cerner. So, yeah, sometimes I'll get the Adrian Cerner.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Tell me why is it a common name for anybody who's not, who's new to this? I know where you're going, but where would the play be with that, Adrian?

Adrian Serna:

Yeah, that's our EHR, right? What we use today, everything that we do inside of our hospitals in our, we use Cerner. So, it's funny when people come out and say, Hey, Adrian's Cerner. I'm like, No, it's actually Serna.

Japhet De Oliveira:

So, it'll be the equivalent of like Adrian Microsoft.

Adrian Serna:

Yeah. Basically.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK. All right. Well, I'm glad, I'm glad it's good. Or Adrian Word. Well, we're really glad Adrian to have you and thanks for that, as well. What do you do for work, Adrian, at the moment?

Adrian Serna:

Yeah. So, I'm the president of Adventist Health Physician Services, which represents all of our clinics across the company, which we've got about 300 plus clinics and about 800 plus providers that we support across those clinics.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fantastic. That's brilliant. And how long have you been in this current role?

Adrian Serna:

In this current role? Basically since the pandemic started. A little after that, I took over as president. Prior to that, I held many other hats in AH, but about a little bit after the pandemic.

Japhet De Oliveira:

When you say AH is that code for something. It's code that you and I get. We call it -

Adrian Serna:

Yeah. Adventist health.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. You should see his smile. It's fantastic, it's good. Adventist Health. Absolutely. All right. So, let's talk about some of the simple things. When you wake up in the morning, what's your drink of choice in the morning? Is it water, is it coffee, is it tea or one of those liquid green smoothies?

Adrian Serna:

Well, I've got a smoothie today, but normally it's probably some water. Once a week, I will enjoy some coffee. So, once a week, I've got a coffee day where I'll enjoy that. But other than that, it's mostly water.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Fantastic. Straight out of tap or are you one of those filter people?

Adrian Serna:

No, I'm one of those people that gets the water, five gallon jugs, delivered to the house and you just tap the cold water right away. It's got to be cold. I can't drink luke warm or room temperature water.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK. Note to self. Never give him a glass of warm water. All right. That's great. Adrian, where were you born?

Adrian Serna:

I was actually born in Los Angeles.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK.

Adrian Serna:

So, Northern California's new to me. I've only been up here for about seven years, but I was born and raised in Los Angeles and pretty much split my time between San Gabriel/ Pasadena area, and then later on, Riverside/Loma Linda area.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK. And do you get to go back and visit a lot because it's not that far away?

Adrian Serna:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, nice.

Adrian Serna:

Driving down all the time. My family, my wife's family, everybody's down in Southern California. My sister recently moved up last year, but other than that, all of our siblings, all of our parents everybody's down in Southern California.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Now, you say, move up and move down. That's just because of geography, but it's nothing else really, right? There's no hidden code inside, moving up and moving down, right?

Adrian Serna:

No, no, just geography.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right. All right. Great. When you were a child in LA, what did you imagine you were going to be when you grew up?

Adrian Serna:

You know, I don't know that I actually had a thought. Some people grow up, I want to be a doctor, I want to be a police officer. For me, I just grew up thinking... I wasn't really sure what I was going to do. And, I enjoyed running around, I enjoyed playing sports. I knew I wasn't going to play sports professionally, but I loved running around and playing.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I love that. I love that, that was great. And you coach right now, as well?

Adrian Serna:

I do, I do.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Adrian Serna:

I've got three boys.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK.

Adrian Serna:

So, you can imagine in the house, my wife is the only female, she gets to be the queen, but there's a lot of testosterone around where even board games are difficult for her because all boys just want to win, right? Competition. So, I've grown up coaching my boys through every sport. Hand them a ball, doesn't matter what it is, and they're going to love it.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, that's fantastic. Hey, it's beautiful. Hey, let's talk about personality. Would people describe you, Adrian, as an introvert, as an extrovert? And would you agree?

Adrian Serna:

So, Inside of AH, or Adventist Health, I think people would think that I'm an extrovert, maybe, just if they only see me in a meeting.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Which we do, a lot.

Adrian Serna:

Yeah. That's my life here. But, actually I'm an introvert. So, when I'm home and I'm with family or I'm with extended family, I'm probably the quietest guy in the room.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Huh. Wow. Wow. And, so you agree absolutely? Yeah.

Adrian Serna:

Absolutely.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right.

Adrian Serna:

Yeah. When I get home, I am pretty dead and tired from, introvert, being in meetings all day. I mean, I get home and I'm just wiped, right?

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, oh, I hear you, I hear you. That's good. Beautiful. What about habits? Are you an early riser or late night owl?

Adrian Serna:

So, growing up, I've always felt I'm the late owl. Like I mentioned, I love playing, I love working out, as well. And I used to always do that at night. I had no problem, after my kids went to bed, going out and working out at 9:00 PM and no issues going to bed, could go to bed after that.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Adrian Serna:

Now, I find myself, recently -

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Adrian Serna:

Waking up a little earlier.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, life is changing.

Adrian Serna:

So, it's the older age. Maybe it's the older age, it's starting to hit me and I'm starting to become that early bird instead and having difficulty staying up late.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Is it the silver Fox coming into the gray beard? Is that what it is?

Adrian Serna:

It is, it is. What's coming down below right here in the goatee, that's what's starting to take over.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That was beautiful. All right. What's the first thing you thought about this morning when you woke up? The first thing that went through your mind.

Adrian Serna:

First thing that went through my mind was probably just, what do I need to do today? What's going on? Unfortunately, we're so busy now that I don't even really look ahead on my calendar too much. It's really waking up in the morning and saying, what is it that I'm doing today? It is that crazy. Meetings move around so quickly and so fast. It's like, is this all still the same from what I remembered last week? So, I just wake up thinking, All right, what do I need to look at? What changed? What hasn't?

Japhet De Oliveira:

No, I hear you. And, here's a leadership question. Are you a backseat driver?

Adrian Serna:

Am I a backseat driver? I hope not. I really try to kind of empower all those to really drive what they're... I'm there to assist and I'm there to help. But, too often, the people we have leading certain areas, they're better leaders at that than I am, and I need to let them do their job.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fantastic. Brilliant. All right. So, here we are. First 10 questions, all done, dusted. Brilliant. So, now it is up to you to choose a number from 11 to 100. Where would you like to go first, Adrian?

Adrian Serna:

Let's go with 17.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK. 17 it is. Share what day is the most special to you on the calendar and why.

Adrian Serna:

That one's pretty easy, I think it happens every week and that's the seventh day of the calendar and that's the Sabbath.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK.

Adrian Serna:

I can't survive without the Sabbath. It's one way we talk about our blue zone strategy and -

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Adrian Serna:

How to downshift. It really hard to downshift in a day, in any day, there's just too much going on. You're always going to find something else to do and you're not going to find the opportunity to downshift because your list is too long. And, the Sabbath every week allows you that opportunity to say whatever else is going on, I don't care about email, I don't care about work. Kids, we don't care about school or homework. We're downshifting for 24 hours and are going to spend time together as a family and spend time with our God. And, I love, every seven days, that the Sabbath comes and we get to downshift for a day.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It is a pretty powerful cycle, pretty powerful cycle. Very, very healing.

Adrian Serna:

It is. It is.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Very healing. Love that. Brilliant. All right, good. Where do you want to go after 17?

Adrian Serna:

Like I said, I like seven, so let's go to 27.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right. 27 it is. Bring us into your kitchen for a special meal. What would you be making? We're going to find out Adrian cooks or if he doesn't cook.

Adrian Serna:

Adrian does not cook.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, OK.

Adrian Serna:

And we're all probably better off for that. My wife is the cook in the home. If Adrian's cooking, we're probably doing some veggie burgers or something like that, I can handle that. But, if I've got to kind of grab a bunch of ingredients and start chopping up stuff, that's probably not happening. If Adrian's cooking, you're getting some tacos or you're getting a burger or you're getting something simple.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Have your boys learned to cook?

Adrian Serna:

They're actually better cooks than I am.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's great.

Adrian Serna:

My oldest is quite good at making desserts.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's great.

Adrian Serna:

So, they like the dessert slant.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It's a great skill. That's fantastic. Oh, good. All right. After 27, then where do you want to go next?

Adrian Serna:

Let's go 37.

Japhet De Oliveira:

37 it is. Oh, this is great. What do you like most about your family?

Adrian Serna:

Like most about my family? Just the overall love, the unity in the desire that we have to serve God and being willing to step out and just do whatever it is that he asks. It's difficult, and we often fail when he asks, but having the mindset as I family that we are going to try to do what it is that he asks. And, we've had the blessing of being able to do a couple family mission trips.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, nice.

Adrian Serna:

And I think that's created even a stronger bond with, not only together as a family, but with our God, as well. Being able to see kind of different aspects of life that are out there. And, I love the perspective that that brings for kids when they get to go out and see something outside of the US. You take for granted things as much as clean water, warm water, when you take a shower, kids that are running around with no shoes. And so, I love that it's allowed us as a family to come back and say, we are really blessed. Even when things go horribly wrong for us in the US, that's still nothing compared to what day to day life is out there. And so we can take that in perspective.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I was just going to ask you where you think all of these values came from, but you actually explained it by doing these mission trips, it's actually kind of bonded you together as a family. Is that what you're saying?

Adrian Serna:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Of course, our parents, as well. Our parents instilled the foundation in us and it's our opportunity to, to pass that on to our children, hoping that they'll do the same.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. Hey, that's beautiful. Brilliant. All right. Where do you want to go next after 37?

Adrian Serna:

Let's go 47.

Japhet De Oliveira:

47 it is. All right. You've just met someone. What would you want them to know about you and why?

Adrian Serna:

Ultimately, the just simple philosophy of my life so they can understand my priorities. I've always said that my priorities start with, it's basically three things and everything flows after that. One is God, two is family and three is work or school or whatever it is that is appropriate for your age. But to me, it's got to function in that way. It's got to be with that priority. And, if you start to get out of that priority, then it's time to time to reset and refocus your whole life.

Japhet De Oliveira:

So, this is not one of the questions here, but how do you reset?

Adrian Serna:

Prayer.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Hmm.

Adrian Serna:

Really get in and ask God to help you, right? Because we can't reset ourselves. I think oftentimes when I see that I'm maybe falling astray, maybe my priorities aren't right, it's really prayer and asking God through the Holy Spirit to help me get to that point of where I need to reset and what I need to correct. Because I know I can't do it on my own. I know that everything I do, including this job, I don't have the knowledge or wisdom on my own to do this work. It's really through him that I'm able to kind of do his will. And, God opens the door and my responsibility is to say yes and walk through it. But, I know he's taking care of the rest.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Well, thanks for allowing me the bonus question. That was 47a. But, I think you're absolutely right about that. The reset has take place, we can't do it by ourselves. In any sphere of life, having somebody else come inside and help us is always good and reaching out through prayers. Wonderful. Appreciate that. All right. Still want to stay with the sevens? You want to go?

Adrian Serna:

Let's go sevens.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right, 57 then. If you had to endorse a brand, what would it be and why?

Adrian Serna:

A brand?

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Adrian Serna:

Wow.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Would be Cerner.

Adrian Serna:

No, it wouldn't be Cerner. But if I had to endorse a brand. Is this a, a brand that's known or is this -

Japhet De Oliveira:

It could be anything, anything, any brand. And then you have to explain why that particular brand.

Adrian Serna:

Yeah. I do love Nike just for Just Do It. Because, if it comes down to it, that is what we need to do. When we're called to something, just do it. You might be uncomfortable, it might not be in your wheelhouse, it might not be your specialty, but if we're being called to do it, then we need to just do it.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Roll up your sleeves. I like it.

Adrian Serna:

Roll up the sleeves.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, that's good. Good. All right. Brilliant, then. Still in the sevens?

Adrian Serna:

Let's go. Sevens are great.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right. 67 it is. What is the best picture you've ever taken and why?

Adrian Serna:

Wow.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh.

Adrian Serna:

I've had the privilege and blessing of being able to visit some great places, thanks to my wife pushing me out of my comfort zone to get out and see different parts of the country. And, it's probably one of the Yellowstone pictures. We got to go to Yellowstone. I just love kind of the coloring there. I don't know anywhere else where you see that coloring. You can see it in pictures, but seeing it live, with your own eyes, everybody's got to try that. It is something that you don't see. And, I'll say another thing that I think we tried to take a picture of, but we obviously couldn't, was a total eclipse.

Adrian Serna:

We got to go to Oregon a few years back when that happened we're trying to record it. You see pictures on the news. I can tell you no picture, no camera, no recording does a total eclipse justice.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Adrian Serna:

For that few seconds, whatever it is, whatever spot you're in, if you've got 10 seconds, five seconds, 25 seconds, whatever it is, at that moment, when you take those glasses off and you look, there is not a white in this world that represents the white that comes off of that eclipse. Just beautiful. I mean, the only thing that I could think of when I saw that through my own eyes that I couldn't take a picture of was this has got to be what it looks like when we see angels coming down from Heaven at The Second Coming. That's the kind of white that I imagined, because I have never seen that white in my life. Those of you that have probably seen this before, you probably relate to what I'm saying. If you haven't, you've got to make a trip to go see this, because it's a white glow that, like I said, no computer, no nothing can ever generate that color.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That epic. That's a really beautiful picture to paint. Beautiful, love that. That's really good. And, now that you describe it that way, I see it inside my mind in that way, as well. I like that connection. Beautiful. All right. 67, then 77 next. Good with that? All right.

Adrian Serna:

Good with that.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Share one of you your most cup filling experiences with us.

Adrian Serna:

Probably mission trips with my family. I think really getting out and serving. We got to go to Cuba for one of our family mission trips and that was pretty unique because of the way Cuba operates. But, normally when you go on a mission trip, you do the basic kind of VBS things and maybe a dental or a medical or some construction, all that. But, in Cuba, we couldn't do the VBS kind of thing. So, we were some construction on the church, we were doing some health education, but the outreach to the kids was actually sports. So, when that came up, that's when I got the call and I was like, Hey, Adrian, you, you're three boys, this is made for you. Please come to Cuba and lead our sports ministry.

Adrian Serna:

And so, we were, Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun. Let's do that. So, we went out and got some donations, bought a bunch of equipment, the Lord blessed. We went to Dick's Sporting Goods. And I was like, Hey, can we get a discount? They're like, yeah, we'll give you 50% off, get whatever you want. So, we took a ton of stuff to Cuba, we had everything. Of course baseball, because they love baseball. But we got some basketballs, we got some footballs to teach them kind of, Hey, there's a different kind of football, we got some basketballs. And, we started out the week and probably had about 10 to 15 kids join us to play some sports. And each day, it just increased to the point where, at the end, we had 50 plus people playing sports with us by the end of the week.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's beautiful.

Adrian Serna:

And the beauty of it that really filled my cup was it actually led to where, at the church where we were doing work, doing some demolition, doing some painting, doing all kinds of different things, it was pretty hard labor, especially demolition part to demolish some of the buildings. And after a couple days, it was pretty rough. And it's like, man, this is getting tiring, swinging these heavy sledgehammers.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Adrian Serna:

And what was beautiful was these young people that were playing with us, some of them college age, 20s, things like that, too, started coming to the church because they asked, Hey, where are you guys at? And we were like, oh well, we're at the church, we're working during the day, but every night after we're done working, we'll come here and play with you guys and just hang out. And just through that connection, they started showing up the church saying, how can I help? So, they started picking up the sledge hammers and swinging as my back was starting to give out right from swinging hammers and then playing sports and swinging bats at night, I was starting to give way. So, it was really cool to watch them show up and say, Hey, let me help you. Let me swing for you. And, it filled my cup to say, man, don't even know us, really just played a few games with us and here they are, ready to work and put themselves at work for something that they had no connection to. They were just willing to serve.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's beautiful. Take ownership together. That's fantastic. I mean, that's part of what you hope a mission trip will actually do as well. It will instill really inspire the locals to actually take more ownership and to be able to provide the support, and inspire you, as well, to come back and be even better and stronger.

Adrian Serna:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fantastic. Beautiful.

Adrian Serna:

Absolutely. You always think you're going to be the one that's giving the blessing. And you come back, you're more blessed than -

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's actually so true, it's so true. Oh, it's true. All right. You good to go, 87?

Adrian Serna:

Let's go.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right. When you're under incredible stress, what helps to ground you?

Adrian Serna:

Pretty much my priorities. Number one, God. Number two, family. That's where it's at. It's really sitting down and asking the Lord for help and then really taking time to just put it all aside and just hang out with my family and reset and sit down and just enjoy something fun together. Maybe, we're just going out for some frozen yogurt and hanging out and just putting it all aside. Whatever it is, it's always time with God and time with the family that that gets me.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Mm, that's good. Beautiful. Good. All right. 97 then, is that right?

Adrian Serna:

Let's go.

Japhet De Oliveira:

97. Tell us about a time when you did the right thing.

Adrian Serna:

Hmm. I got plenty of times when I did the wrong thing.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It's always hard. It's always hard for people to answer this one.

Adrian Serna:

I would say one time that I did the right thing was actually coming to Adventist Health, because I wasn't sure. I was, prior to this, at Loma Linda. Like I said, spent all my time in Southern California. For the people that are familiar with the area, we lived near Loma Linda, near Grand Terrace. My wife's parents were in Colton, my parents were in Riverside, everybody within a 15 mile radius. And, this job opportunity came up in Adventist Health, which was, at the time, I was coming up just to be a Director of Finance for the clinics, which is what I was doing at Loma Linda. I was Director of Finance there, same thing in the medical group. So, there really wasn't a title change, per se. It was the, same job, little bigger scale at Adventist Health.

Adrian Serna:

But, I was afraid to leave my family, I was afraid of what is that going to look like, because I'm comfortable? And I kept asking God, Hey, can you make this wet? And He did. And then I said, Well tomorrow, can you make it dry? And he did that, too. And, I just kept asking and he kept answering and it got to the point where, I would say, I was probably more kicked through the door than I did walk through the door. And, now looking back, I obviously see God's wisdom and why he wanted me here and the opportunity that I had to serve Him here. And, so I'm very thankful that I eventually said yes, but I could have easily stepped away and back to our Nike point and I not just do it and just stick with what was comfortable to me. But, I'm thankful that He helped push me to say yes.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's really good. That is really good. It is difficult to sometimes make a great decision, a good decision, into a place that seems difficult, seems like it shouldn't be. And yet, later, on you realize that's actually the best decision you could have ever made because it stretches you and grow you.

Adrian Serna:

It stretched me to grow into places that I never thought possible for myself. Back to your point earlier, you were asking about, eventually, later on, what did I think once I got into things? I was always good with numbers. My family made fun of me and called me the Count from Sesame street. I was always good with numbers. So, even my career into accounting started with my mom telling me, Hey, there's this job here at [inaudible 00:26:22] University that I think you'd be great at. It's an accounting clerk, but you've always been good with numbers. Why don't you come do this job? At the time I was working for somebody that went out of business in California. And I said, Okay, that's fine. I'll go and check that out.

Adrian Serna:

And, once I got that and got into that, then it clicked, it worked. And, lesson learned is always to your mother first, but second, I thought, eventually, what do I want to do? Well, I'm going to be in accounting, finance, what I ultimately want to be as a CFO. And that was kind of the journey. So, when I came to Adventist Health, even making that decision, there was an opportunity to be a CFO in three or so years from when I came in. And so, that was always the goal. It was like, Oh yeah, I think I want to make this journey to Adventist Health and even though it's scary and uncomfortable, I want to do this. And, my goal is CFO. And now, I sit here today as a president and never would've ever thought originally that I would want to do this work as, as a president, but God has definitely provided and has helped me learn and continues to help me do this job each and every day.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That it is fantastic. And, I appreciate it, actually. We get to work on a few different projects together and I love how you've created a beautiful system to be able to connect with all of the providers, the doctors and to make sure that our clinics are just growing from strengths to strength. It is fantastic. It is fantastic. So, God has blessed you and your gifts are being utilized really well, Adrian. So, that's good.

Adrian Serna:

Thank you.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's good. We have time, Adrian, for two more questions. So, which numbers would you like for your final two?

Adrian Serna:

Well, you said it's the hardest, right, so I'll tempt that. So, we go 99 and 100.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right. 99 and 100. All Right, here we go. This is number 99. What is the most difficult truth that you've ever told?

Adrian Serna:

Yeah, that is tough.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Adrian Serna:

Yeah, probably actually a truth to myself and that was that after high school, I kind of went off on my own, wasn't really connected to God and got to the point where I knew things weren't right. I knew there was a void that we feel and no matter what I did that wasn't being filled. And, sure, could I feel it temporarily with some activity that I was doing that day or that night? Yeah, I could distract myself into thinking that everything was good and I was having a great time. But every morning, I'd wake up and have that same empty feeling.

Adrian Serna:

And I finally had to tell myself, is this really what you want? Is this really what life is about? Or, do you need to reset yourself and go back to where you started and head back to church and get back connected with God? And, luckily, I had a friend that was, at the time, doing some of the things with me and we talked about it and had a little truth session between each other and decided we do need to go back to church. And we did. And I'm very thankful that I did, or I'd be pretty lost today, if that wasn't the case.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fantastic. That's fantastic. That's beautiful. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that. And, it's beautiful that you both had the courage to be able to share and be able to pause enough to ask those hard questions in the middle of it. So, that's great.

Adrian Serna:

Yeah. It helps when you grow up together and you've been together since first grade. You can be a little more truthful when you've known somebody for quite some time.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's true.

Adrian Serna:

Thankful for his friendship.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's true. No, that's good. That's good. Right. Last question then, question 100. Tell us about one question that you just don't want to answer.

Adrian Serna:

Hmm. How does everything that I'm talking about work on a daily basis?

Japhet De Oliveira:

Hmm.

Adrian Serna:

Because, you're right. It sounds really good, but it's really hard. Even though I say, Hey, it's simple, you do God, family and then work. Problem is our time is spent in the opposite direction. And, it's really easy to have work overwhelm and miss things when I should be more attentive, more listening at home, when I should be going to bed reading the Word and I'm not. So, even though I know what I should be doing, I don't always do it. And back to the just do it part, it's hard, it's hard to live this. So, if people wanted to sit down and say, Hey, Adrian, let's just walk through a week in your life. Can we record that?

Adrian Serna:

Yeah, you'd be surprised. I'm human, and this is not easy, I don't get it right probably six out of seven days. I'm probably messing up, but we have a God that we serve that's full of grace and forgiving. And, I count on that each and every day, because I know that I have a lot of work to do on a daily basis. So, that would be the hardest piece is just to walk somebody through that and let all the dirty laundry be shown. I don't have this down and it's a struggle each and every day to get this right and do this right.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Adrian, I think that that's actually, and I say this as carefully as I can, I think that's actually the answer that probably 99% of us would want to say and 100% of us should all, because, you're right. We can say God, family, work like you said right at the beginning, but then we put our effort into the other way round and it does become the other way round very, very quickly. But, the fact that you just said it out loud, the fact that you've admitted it out loud is actually a huge statement and encouragement to others, as well. That it's something we all struggle with and can struggle with and need that reset. So, thank you for sharing that.

Adrian Serna:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I appreciate that.

Adrian Serna:

Absolutely.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Adrian, it has been a pleasure and an honor to have you be one of the guests here and to share so many of the stories and experiences that actually shaped your life and to the great leader that you are, a leader that actually is making a tremendous difference here at Adventist Health, and to not only to our doctors and clinics, but also to the patients that come through and serve and say through our services.

Japhet De Oliveira:

So, thank you so much for that. I want to just encourage all of our listeners to remember that you have amazing stories and experiences, as well. And they're worth hearing, they're worth sharing so find someone, share them, listen to them and be an amazing force for good, as well. God bless you. Look after you. And again, thanks, Adrian, to be part of this.

Adrian Serna:

Thank you.

Narrator:

Thank you for joining us for The Story & Experience podcast. We invite you to read, watch and submit your story and experience at AdventistHealth.org/Story. The Story & Experience Podcast was brought to you by Adventist Health, through the Office of Culture.