Trust Makes Details Unnecessary

​Paige Bueckers came to the University of Connecticut in 2020 dreaming of winning a national championship on the women's basketball team. Very few women with Bueckers' talent - if any - leave UConn without one.

But Bueckers' story didn't follow the storyline of many of the women who proceeded her.

2020-21 was a great season, but we all know the challenges that came with 2020. And for the UConn women, although Covid didn't stand in their way of having a great season - or Bueckers, who was named the player of the year - they came up short when it came to a national championship, losing in the final 4.

Then, during the 2021-22 season, Bueckers suffered a torn meniscus and missed 19 games. She came back late in the season, but wasn't herself. The team eventually lost in the national championship game.

Along comes 2022-23, and again, Bueckers season ended early and abruptly when she tore her ACL and missed the entire season.

In 2023-24, Bueckers stayed healthy and the team once again made it to the final four, where they lost to a Caitlyn Clark led Iowa team.

So here we are, 2024-25, Bueckers' fifth season at UConn, and she's still fighting for that National Championship dream come true.

I think knowing Bueckers' story explains the tears in my eyes as I watched UConn win the National Championship this past Sunday. You could almost feel Bueckers' fear of a story ending with her being the greatest UConn basketball player to never win a championship.

But that is not how the story ended.

Bueckers said about her journey, "He [God] sent me trials and tribulations, but it was to build my character; it was to test my faith. I just kept on believing. I did all I could so God could do all I can't."

In the post-game interview on the court after UConn won, Bueckers said, "We lean on God's strength here, and through God's power, for God's purposes. We're not doing this alone."

Steven Furtick says, the less we trust God the more we need details about the plan.

Bueckers could have gotten caught up in the details: Covid, injuries, heart-breaking defeats. Bueckers could have gotten caught up in the details and decided the details weren't leading her to the outcome she'd dreamt about.

She could have become discouraged.

But Bueckers didn't get caught up in the details. She stayed caught up in her trust.

Deep trust requires few if any details.

God told Noah to build an ark. And scholars estimate that Noah kept building for 50-75 years before that ark was completed. Noah continued faithfully building for decades, guided by God's promise rather than a clear timeline or understanding of the full plan.

Oh, how I have days when I need God's timeline. I need the details. I want to shove trust to the side of the road and have God give me a map that details EVERY road I will travel!!

But I look back on my life and see a timeline and details that don't much line up with any plans or visions I have had. Yet, here I am, right where I need to be in God's plan, right on time.

I love stories like Paige Bueckers. Stories that reveal that needing to know God's story for our life often stands in the way of us living God's most beautiful stories in our life.

Paige Bueckers kept showing up.

Showing up in trust not with a notebook full of details.

And in the end, the details she received were more beautiful than she ever imagined.

There's a lesson there for me.

Maybe there's a lesson there for you.