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Rebekah Trittipoe is one who knows what it means to “go the distance”. This committed Christian runs—and survives—ultra marathons, which find her on jaunts of up to 100 miles at a time. Amidst sometimes unthinkable conditions Rebekah—determined to meet her goal—grinds on.
As with her extreme running, Rebekah's dedication to God’s Word is steadfast and focused. Just as she encourages fellow runners to keep their eyes open to the beauty around them during a trek through challenging terrain, Rebekah inspires other believers to look for God's revelation not so much in theological treatise, but in the mundane things of life—watching a simple sunrise, pulling weeds, taking in orphaned kittens, or hauling rocks for a backyard path.
Her daily devotions (366 of them, to encompass leap year) include an inspirational story, a Scripture, and a daily challenge. She offers these with the mere purpose of helping each of us make our way through the daily grind—whether that be navigating the nettle-fraught mountainside or sitting at a desk slogging our way through a work day.
Preface (excerpted from "Pace Yourself")
Pulled from the recesses of a tiny closet tucked under the stairs, the simple cardboard boxes showed their age. Each, encrusted with a deep layer of dust, held valuable treasures unfitting such a humble hiding place. Choosing one, I gently blew the surface clean and pulled open the box flaps. Not yet wanting to disturb the contents, I sat up straighter in my cross-legged position and took it in before reaching to open the remaining boxes. There before me were hundreds of letters still in their faded envelopes, most written in the mid-1940s. Each had been meticulously opened, none carelessly torn. Gingerly, I pulled one from a box and began to read.
Hours passed. My legs cramped and my hands and lap grew dirty from handling the old mail. But still, a life unfolded before me; a life I didn’t know. You see, these were the letters my Father had written in his college years. Long before the day of email and cell phones, he kept a steady flow of letters to his parents and chums back home. Like a ping-pong game, mail bounced in both directions. And somehow, each letter was saved and sealed into a box for safekeeping.
My Dad’s letters, written in that distinctive yet tiny penmanship, revealed a lot about his day to day life. He was a descriptive writer, sharing detail some might consider mundane. I learned about his classroom habits, I read about his play on the baseball field, I saw letters of acceptance into dental school and I viewed pictures of his pals. But more importantly, through his writing I came to understand his character. I could feel his joy and his disappointments. And, I sensed his strong and steady faith. Those boxes of letters became his life’s journal. I am forever grateful.
Now sixty-some years later, I take a similar path. Though without postage, I create my own journal; a collection of stories and experiences throughout a single year. Each entry is my letter sharing real life. Not life the way I wish it to be. Just plain life. Some entries may seem ordinary. Some extraordinary. But all are written with a singular purpose: To discipline myself to see God working everyday in every way.
I invite you to journey with me as I begin to train my mind to understand that this God of the vast universe is also the God of the smallest detail. Slowly and methodically, we’ll work ourselves through the good and bad, the joys and sadness, the thrills and the mundane. Too often we want a dramatic theological breakthrough but fail to see the lessons in pulling weeds or watching a simple sunrise. So come. Take a run with me through 366-days of normal, ordinary life.
