Providence, enjoyment, and awareness: Some Godly lessons I learned from Megacon 2015.

Hi everyone, welcome to another installment of the Nightcrawler Experience!
On April 11th, I attended the 2015 Megacon comic book convention in Orlando, FL with my dear friend Elizabeth (Who may from time to time in the future be seen writing guest articles here on the Nightcrawler Experience, as well). Other than my phone being dropped and the screen's visuals knocked out, I had a great time there. Not only did I have a lot of fun, get a lot of stuff from my comic collection signed by some of the writers and artists who were there, acquire a few buttons for my collection on my travel- backpack, see some great cosplayers, and meet some cool celebrity guests, I also learned some pretty valuable lessons about living for God from being there, so I'll be presenting them here along with my general thoughts as this entry.

My first lesson occurred right at the start of the convention, and dealt with not letting circumstances steal the joy we have. Early in the day, before the convention floor itself actually opened, something happened that has never happened before: A cosplayer actually wanted to take a picture with me, rather than the other way around (I was wearing my Captain America hoodie, and he had a backpack that resembled Cap's shield)! I insisted on having a picture of it taken with my camera phone as well, but as the guy was handing it back to me, it got dropped on the cement floor, wrecking its visual display. When this happened, I freaked out a lot, wondering how I could make things work out and if it could be fixed or replaced. Elizabeth, however, noticed the fear and focus I was developing, and strongly encouraged me to let it go. She pointed out that if I kept obsessing over my worry with my phone, it would ruin my enjoyment of the entire convention. So, through that wise bit of advice, I put my worry about the phone on the backburner, and had a lot more fun in the convention in the process.
In much the same way, God teaches us not to let obsessive worrying about our immediate circumstances steal the joy and service to Him we can gain from our lives. In Matthew 6:25 and 27, Jesus tells us '“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?... Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"' 1 Peter 5:7 says 'Cast all your anxiety upon (God), because He cares for you.' God loves us enough that He doesn't want to see us wasting our lives worrying about petty things. It's not to say He doesn't want us to have a plan for things or think through our problems, just that we shouldn't let them consume us so much that they keep us from living our lives to the fullest.
By the way, here's the picture in question:

Another great lesson I learned was that God is immensely faithful, and can find ways to deliver His faithful children, whom His eye is always on. See, I went with Elizabeth, but we quickly went our separate ways to look at different things, agreeing to meet at a panel on creative writing at around noon. I went to it when the time came, but Elizabeth apparently didn't, and I couldn't find her anywhere. This really worried me, because I was hoping that I could use our meeting there to arrange where and when we would meet when we were ready to go home for the day, and now that was out the window (Especially due to the fact that my phone was broken and I was fairly certain hers would be out of battery power by that time)!
After the panel ended, I felt a pulling that that should be the time I should then go and get in line for the media guest Alan Tudyk's autograph. See, his presence as a guest was one of the major draws that led me to attend Megacon this year. For those who aren't familiar with him, Alan Tudyk is a quite talented character actor I've been a fan of for over 12 years, playing great roles in movies like 'Dodgeball' (As Steve the Pirate), 'A Knight's Tale' (In which he played the short- tempered squire Wat), the magnificent cult- classic TV show 'Firefly' and its theatrical movie 'Serenity' (As the fan- favorite pilot Wash), the horror- comedy gem 'Tucker and Dale vs. Evil,' the Jackie Robinson biopic '42,' and doing voice work in the Disney movies 'Wreck- it Ralph,' 'Frozen,' and 'Big Hero 6'. I went through the line to meet him slowly yet surely, and as I was doing so, I started trying to think up increasingly complicated plans to try and get into contact with Elizabeth (Some of the plans I thought up involved borrowing another convention attendee's phone, using my laptop to connect to the convention center's wi/fi, calling Elizabeth's mom, and similar ridiculous things). Then out of nowhere, when I was about 10 spots away from Tudyk's table, Elizabeth came along! I had a guy in front of me hold my place in the line, and ran up to her. We talked quickly, and made our arrangements on where and when we'd meet when we wanted to go home. She got into line herself (She's a fellow Alan Tudyk fan), and I went the rest of the way through and met Tudyk.

Through this, I learned a good lesson about God’s providence. I remembered that God always makes all things work together for good for those who love Him (As it says in Romans 8:28), and will always look after and provide for His faithful children. It might not always be in the ways we want or expect (More on that in a bit), but it comes just the same. Furthermore, Psalm 33:18 says that '... The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His unfailing love.' I believe it was indeed His will that Elizabeth and I each got the idea to get Tudyk's autograph then so we'd run into each other, and better work out our plan to meet up and get home safely.

Actually meeting Alan Tudyk was of course awesome, too. He was really nice, and had a great sense of humor, as I'd imagined he would. He even did a little of his King Candy (The villainous character he played/ voiced in Disney's 'Wreck- it Ralph') voice for me! I asked him if there was going to be a 'Tucker and Dale' sequel anytime soon, and he basically said that he and some others are working on developing it, but won't really commit to it unless they can make it into something at least as good as the first film. I then asked if he was going to be doing any more voice work for Disney in the near future. He responded by saying yes, but that he wasn't at liberty to say anything else about it at the moment. I'm hoping that means he'll be doing a voice for Disney's next big animated film, 'Zootopia.'

Another important lesson I learned was also associated with meeting a media guest. I had set out to also meet Tudyk’s ‘Firefly’/ ‘Serenity’ costar Summer Glau, who’s also been in shows like ‘Arrow,’ ‘Alphas,’ and ‘Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.’ Problem is, the line to meet her was one of the worst- managed lines I’ve ever seen for a media guest in my entire life. Between how incompetent the volunteers running the line were, and the fact that Glau would regularly step out for long periods to do photo- ops for fans, I was in that line for almost two hours without making much progress. When there were about 30 people between me and her, she abruptly left again, presumably for another photo op. What’s worse, it was very close to the time when I would be expected to meet Elizabeth so we could get ready to go home. I happened to look over to the left, and noticed that in the very next booth over, there was almost no line at all to meet another actress I like, Danielle Panabaker (From movies such as ‘Sky High’ and the 2009 ‘Friday the 13^th’ remake, and currently playing Caitlyn Snow on the hit TV series ‘The Flash’). I jumped over to her line, and got her autograph instead! She was very sweet and friendly, and definitely worth the autograph, but there was another surprise in store for me, too: Shortly before getting to Panabaker, Summer Glau abruptly popped out from the curtain (Separating the tables where the media guests were sitting from the hallways leading to other areas of the convention center) right behind her! I waved at Summer, she noticed, and waved back at me with a big smile! I got to have my cake and eat it, too!
This got me to thinking: God’s ways and plans are often completely different from our own plans, largely because He has a MUCH better sense of the "Big picture" than we do. There are plenty of verses in Scripture that drive home this point, such as Proverbs 16:9 ('In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.') and Isaiah 55:8-9 ("'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,' declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."'). Lots of times, we’ll need to keep our eyes open to see if the things we’re working on and pouring our efforts into are truly worth the effort, or if maybe God has something even better in mind right in front of our noses!

So, just from my one day at Megacon, I got a lot of fun, a lot of autographs, some cool meetings with celebrities I admire, and three very valuable lessons on what it means to walk with Jesus. From not letting outside circumstances steal my joy about the here and now, to trusting in God’s deliverance for His faithful servants, to keeping our eyes open for unexpected opportunities He may send our way. I may very well attend next year's convention as well!

That's all for this edition of the Nightcrawler Experience. Some new entries should be on their way soon, including possibly a guest- entry by Elizabeth. Until then, God bless you all!