A small town 100 miles east of Los Angeles is storied training ground. Resting 9,000 feet above sea level and surrounded by the San Bernardino National Forest, Big Bear Lake is seven miles long and about 1/2 mile wide and has over 300 days of sunshine each year. It’s above the pollution, above the clouds, above the noise. And along with two of our friends in a borrowed 2-story cabin, that’s where Loretta and I spent the last week.

Here’s a quick recap of my routine on the lake. Each day I’d wake, stretch and drink coffee on the wooden balcony while I watched the same two squirrels chase each other up the redwood trees.

The four of us would then hit the unbelievable trails, come back for lunch and take naps. And for those like me that never nap (either because they never make time or because they fear not sleeping at night), it was amazing. I actually fell asleep in the middle of the day! So strange and so awesome. Another quick shower, a little more sightseeing, dinner, and then we would end the day playing cards. Does that sound like the best time? It was.

But Loretta knows, all the while, my brain was cranking about so many things. While the week was a time to recalibrate and refresh, it was also a time of simmering, praying and planning. We dreamers have our way. Vacations can be an exercise of faith; a life-interrupting, plan-disturbing, goal-delaying, ego-disrupting process.

DIVINE CREATIVITY
On one of our daily hikes, I noticed a group of kids sitting on some rocks along the path. Each one had their iPhone out and I could hear YouTube videos and I saw thumbs scrolling and scrolling. I was reminded of something Max Lucado once wrote, “We live in a world of divine creativity and yet we are content to gaze only at the carpet.” As I looked at them, I wondered if that’s how God sees me. After all, my face can get buried inside my phone. My moment of self-righteousness was met with a sobering truth.

Well, one afternoon we took a guided tour on the lake and came across one of the nation’s only solar observatories, which brings me to the point of this entry. I mentioned the 300 days of sunshine, well, while most observatories track the stars in space and study the moon in place, this one just stares at the sun. At such an elevation and with ideal weather conditions, few places on earth have as little between us and the heavens, so it’s the perfect spot to gaze. If you know me, I wrote this entry on that boat.

TRAIN HIGH, WORK LOW
Years ago I spent time training in an altitude chamber. As you may know, training at altitude helps you better perform at sea level. The more time you spend up high, the better you perform down low. As a physiologist, that makes good sense to me, but as a believer, it points me in the right direction; which is exactly where we're going.

”Blame it on Copernicus,” says Lucado. “The world was rocking along pretty well until he came along in 1543 and announced that the sun, and not the earth was the center of the solar system. Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus with his maps and drawings, taps us on our collective shoulders, clears his throat and says, “Excuse me, I’m very sorry to be one to break the news. But the center of our solar system is out there. And lifting a lone finger he pointed toward the brightest star: the sun.

The announcement was not well received. People didn’t receive demotions well back then. We still don’t. We still like to think the universe revolves around us. And we don’t like to be told otherwise. But isn’t this the message of the Bible? Doesn’t God do what Copernicus did? Tapping the collective shoulder of humanity he points to the Son and says, “Behold the center of it all.”

PRODUCTS OF PLACE
A few weeks ago, Loretta and I were at a get-together with boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya. Big Bear Lake is where he’d train for his bouts against Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. But as it turns out, that little lake up the road from Los Angeles can also serve as storied training ground for old and busted fighters like me.

Aaron Cohen once wrote, “Boxers are products of place; inevitably where they come from is how they end up in the ring and how they fight once they get there.”

Ten years ago I sponsored Robert Guerrero, a fighter on HBO Pay-per-View Boxing (pictured above). Some of you were there for that one. I put PrayFit.com across his trunks in hopes that the world would visit my little website. They did. I only wish that I was fighting then the same fight I was fighting now; a fight for those that need respite or for those that need the gift of mobility.

Ten years ago - it ALL revolved around me - or so I thought.

- Jimmy Peña

Lord, thank you for being the center of it all, even when (and especially when) we don’t act like it. I find it easier to worry than to pray. Easier to fret than to have faith. But thank you for the times when you take us up above the muck of life. Thank you for reminding us that the best place to fight is from our knees. Please be with our fragile country, our leaders, teachers, students, caregivers and law enforcement. Please be with those in our circles that have been touched by this nasty virus. We lift up our spouses, our parents, siblings, our pastors and our friends. Many are hurting with pain unknown. You are the center of it all. You came low. We need you for every breath and thought. Somehow you assemble these fragments of mine into something you alone understand. May they bless each reader. In your precious name, amen.

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