Spaces where imagination is celebrated. Spaces where creativity flourishes. Spaces where people who might feel “different” in everyday life suddenly realize they are surrounded by thousands of people just like them. Comic conventions—better known as comic cons—are one of those spaces. And on this Friday the 13th, it feels especially fitting to talk about the favor of safe spaces for creativity, fandom, and joy.

On this sixth day of Women’s History Month, we honor the remarkable legacy of Nannie Helen Burroughs, an educator, leader, and visionary who built one of the most transformative educational institutions for Black women in American history. At a time when Black women were systematically denied access to opportunity, Burroughs refused to accept the idea that doors had to remain closed. Instead, she built new ones.

This 27th day of Black History Month, we honor the extraordinary courage of Ida B. Wells, a journalist, educator, and anti-lynching crusader who confronted one of the darkest realities in American history — racial terror disguised as justice. She did not confront it with weapons. She confronted it with words. And in doing so, she revealed something powerful: Truth, when anchored in conviction, becomes spiritual warfare.

On this day during Black History Month, we honor the life of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman whose cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951—and whose biological contribution has saved millions of lives around the world.

This Favor Fridays with Tony™ — on the 13th day of Black History Month — we honor the favor that turns survival into proclamation, and endurance into testimony. Today, we spotlight Frederick Douglass, a man who understood that sometimes favor doesn’t just free you — it commissions you.

Alignment is what happens when your prayers, your choices, your pace, and your obedience begin to agree with what God has been showing you all along. It’s the relief you feel when you stop fighting what God is correcting. It’s the peace that settles in when you finally let go of what never fit.

The adrenaline of the new year is gone. The grit of endurance has already been tested. You’ve stayed. You’ve remained. You didn’t quit when it got uncomfortable. Now comes the harder question: Where is this actually leading me? That question is not a sign of doubt. It’s often a sign of favor.

Quiet obedience is not flashy. It does not perform well in a world addicted to visibility. But it is one of the most trusted postures in Scripture, because it reveals something deeper than talent or enthusiasm—it reveals faithfulness.

Proverbs reminds us plainly, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23). Guarding requires boundaries, and boundaries require discernment. That discernment—knowing what to refuse as much as what to receive—is not resistance to God’s will. It is often evidence of it.

The confetti has settled. The declarations have quieted. The pressure to reinvent yourself overnight has softened. And that’s a good thing—because real transformation doesn’t happen in the shouting. It happens in the steps. This second day of 2026 is where faith moves from intention to motion. Not leaps. Not dramatic pivots. Just the decision to keep walking with God when the excitement fades and the work begins. That’s where favor shows up.

God says plainly, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you… and when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned” (Isaiah 43:2). Notice the language. Not if you pass through—but when. Favor does not prevent the fire; it ensures the fire does not consume you.

God develops His greatest warriors in secret places. He strengthens His champions in shadows, not stages. The shadows are not your punishment —they are your preparation. God hides you to shape you. He shields you to strengthen you. He shelters you to sharpen you. Everything He is building in you right now is happening away from public eyes — but it is not wasted. Heaven sees everything you’re becoming.