I found myself on my face tonight. Don’t worry, I didn’t trip and fall…this was intentional. You see, I rarely pray on my knees. It wasn’t something I was brought up doing and it always felt too awkward for me. Tonight, however, it felt absolutely necessary.

I can think back to two distinct points in my life when I knelled to pray. The first was in a crisis situation when I was a freshman in high school. I remember falling on my face in the bathroom of my grandparents house, begging God to intercede because I knew of nothing else to do. The second time was in my hostel room in Koln, Germany, where I promised the Lord that I would go anywhere on Earth in his name, so long as he went with me.

Generally, when I see someone knelling to pray, I just think it looks terribly uncomfortable. Seriously, just looking at them makes my knees ache. But when I really think about encountering the Almighty, I can’t imagine any response to be more appropriate than falling on my face in total awe.

Turns out, knelling is actually a symbol of submission and vulnerability. In ancient times, when a knight came before the king and knelt in his armor, the only part of his body exposed was his neck. In doing this, the knight gave the king the opportunity to chop his head off right there. He literally put his life in the king’s hands.

That is exactly what I found myself doing tonight. On the floor of the auditorium where thousands of students will hear the gospel this summer, I laid my life in the hands of the King of Kings one more time. Tonight, I dedicated my summer to his glory and honor. I begged him to use me every single day to further his kingdom. And I have to say, tonight is the first night in a long time that I’ll lay my head down on my pillow and not worry about what the future holds.

I know it’s in the hands of my heavenly father, because that is where I left it tonight.