This is one of the familiar stories in the bible and today I want to talk about how Jesus continued his ministry. Which I would say it’s through self care. By definitions, self-care is any activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health. Self-care is “something that refuels us, rather than takes from us.”

One of my favorite things to do is walking around the neighborhood or in a park. Just walking. I think one of the huge blessings for us is nature. Different colors, different shades of a color… seeing the beauty of uniqueness and harmony is such a blessing to us. Isn’t it? I love Spring. You know, when the long time of winter is finally gone and we are expecting new life, beginning which is like signs of miracles. I love summer. I think the color of green during summer is a kind of unique shade that the energy of summer causes. I love fall, changes of the colors on trees are amazing. All the different colors, different pace of changing the color… I don’t know how much time you spend outside for any reasons during this time of social distancing, but I think I spend more time seeing nature than before because I try intentionally to take away myself from the screen on the computer. Since the pandemic began, I feel we are still busy to figure out how to do things differently, but I think it is true as well that all the limitations for the virus lets us slow down in some ways. We’ve been so busy because there are kids activities, many events around the season, traveling… which often give us joys and energy but also let us be drained often times. Our time is limited. There are only a few things that we can accomplish in a single day. So we’ve learned to put priorities. Taking care for others, we cross off things for ourselves like exercise, eating healthy food, our time with God.. because there are other people, other needs that we should pay attention to. We see that in Jesus’ time in today’s text as well.

Let’s see today’s text focusing on Jesus. In this familiar text, we usually talk about Peter who was asked to walk on the water but ultimately failed because he didn’t keep his eyes on faith, but focus on the storm that caused him to be caught up with fear. It is an important message for us to hold on faith no matter how hard the storm in our lives is and shakes us. But this morning I want you to look at Jesus closely.