I was fortunate enough to attend C3 2008. It was a great conference with awesome speakers including my personal favorite and fearless leader Perry Noble. The impact from the talks I heard will stay with me forever. I can still hear TD Jakes voice calling those of us out who sometimes like “to tell Jesus about himself”.
If you have ever been to a conference like this you know how overwhelmed you can feel when it is over. It is almost impossible to digest all of the truth that has been downloaded on you. I was certainly in that state at the end of this conference… but God had one more lesson for me to learn and he used a gas cap to do it.
I was in Dallas with a group of folks from our church and we had rented an SUV to tote us around. On the way to the airport to head home we (myself, my wife, Karla & Trish) stopped at a gas station to fill up the rental. No big deal, right?
Well I was the man (you know, the “I drive, don’t need no directions, I’ll fill up the car to protect you girls” man) so I hopped out of the car to take care of things. Well… as I headed toward the gas cap I saw that the gas cap cover was flush with the quarter panel. No biggie… that means that there is a release button inside the car. So, I open the drivers door and lean in…look around… open the glove box… the console… check below the seat… under the steering wheel… on the door… ummm… Houston we have a problem.
My cool cover now blown, the ladies I’m with, who are quite perceptive, try to lend me hand in finding the release button. No luck. Then Trish and Karla begin to offer help… like… I’ll go ask the man inside or I’ll call someone… or maybe the person filling up their car next to us can help… NOOOOOOOOOO! I was in big strong man hell!
In the height of this extremely dramatic time, my lovely wife is very calm and quite. As I continue the search for this elusive release button, she gets out of the car and walks around to the gas cap cover and looks at it a second and then…. takes her forefinger and gently pushes in on the cover… the cover then pops right open. I’m not sure what happened right after that… but she may have used another one of her fingers to tell me how smart I am. 
)
That, my friends, was a watershed moment for me. That became the event that God used to impact me more than any of the C3 speakers.
Here is what He taught me in all of that drama… in as clear a voice as I’ve ever heard God speak, he said, “Shane, why do you try to make everything so complicated? I have always and will continue to provide all the answers you need and I will never take pleasure in confusing you. When you need answers I am with you and I have put everything you need right in front of you. You will never have to search for a hidden “release button”. All you need to do is be still and reach out and I’ll be there to open up the way you should go.”
Whoa!
I think this lesson for me probably applies to most people. We often seek answers to problems based only our limited knowledge and start to focus on what we don’t know or what we don’t have. Too many times that sends us running toward all the wrong solutions which leads to roadblock after frustrating roadblock. All the while God is waiting for us to take a breath, look to Him and see what He’s placed right in front of us.
