“What will you do with your crown?” Greg asked. The question hung in front of the students. Greg Jao, the conference speaker, had been challenging them all week to consider if they truly acknowledged God as King or if they allowed other things to occupy his rightful place on the throne. We were at Basileia, a week-long student conference held yearly at the end of the spring semester. Hundreds of students were wearing shiny cardboard crowns they had been given as they arrived for the meeting that night.

“What will you do with your crown?” As students reflected on this question, they had the opportunity to give up their crowns, which represented anything that kept God from being the center of their lives.

I was waiting with the other I-V staff to receive the students’ crowns and offer a prayer of blessing over them. For some students, giving up their crowns was painful and difficult. Many thought it over for a long time before taking the crown off their heads.

As one young woman handed me her crown, she started to cry. Anne confessed the bitterness she felt towards a good friend who had hurt her very deeply. She knew that she had to address the issue and forgive her, but she was struggling. She wanted to honor God in that relationship and in her life. In giving up her crown, she was giving up her resentment. I prayed for her, asking God to restore her to wholeness and bring healing to the relationship. Anne did not want her bitterness to take the place of the gracious King of her life.

At the end of the evening a pile of cardboard crowns littered the floor. Those crowns represented the addictions, deep hurts and regrets that had replaced God. Now they became a heap of garbage, just worthless trash compared to the glorious riches of knowing the King.

—Carrie Moorhead has been on staff in eastern New York for one year. She also did a one-year internship in South Africa through LINK.