We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Andrew Tyson Thomson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Andrew Tyson, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?
When I think about legacy, the idea of making a mark on the world around me comes to mind. To take time to reflect on the great things accomplished in one’s lifetime and it have meaning is a lifelong endeavor for all of society. The collection of thoughts, emotions, experiences, and events are what make up the perceptions someone else has on the life we live. With all of this in question, the type of legacy I am hoping to build is one that is a man that has strength in his voice, that became fearless in life and stood firm against all odds, that is a man of passion for creating peace and sharing the resurrected life with anyone, and that was genuine all of his life.
It’s not about how much money is made that makes a man successful enough for a legacy, but it is the character that remained after the world broke him down. When the darkness subsides and the hope and dreams remain, it proves the test of a man is his heart and mind. The soul’s journey is to find salvation and attain oneness with the designer. To lead instead of follow and go against the grain to reveal more is my intention for sharing my aha moment. It is in realization of the possibilities that the brain and body seek, work, and grow to achieve new methods.
Transformation molds and shapes the identity into something new. When resurrection enters the picture, I attempt to explain that the material world is no longer what binds a man to what he leaves behind because he lives eternally. It is about knowing this life would continue after death and the fear dissolved in a man’s life opening a way of strength for the future. The anguish of working your entire life to have a beautiful plot of land, a gorgeous house, and all of your needs met is the status quo, but what matters more is a man’s family. If he was able to grow in life to find newness everyday and see the majesty of the current kingdom until the next one arrives. We are granted time to rule over our own body and build an abundant life worth living, yet we have to remember those that came before us and humble ourselves.
It’s a way to admonish the past and have the structural foundation that can support more than oneself and an entire lineage. The legacy is quite often the children left behind or the assets attained, but I want my readers to see more than this. My intent is to share the deep honor and inspiration that discovering new possibilities through a life well lived can offer an uplifting view of each persons potential. The vision of a man can change and the way people think of him can change, but the gifts he has received live on through how he gave them to others.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Determination has been a subconscious part of my state of mind more recently within the last few years of my journey. I start from the beginning of living with peace and work backwards. One day in my mid 30s, I was finishing up daily chores and concentrating on cleaning up. It was a day of more than remembering.
When someone’s faced with the stress and weight of the reality they are enduring, sometimes people like friends or family will offer a wake up call. In this case, I had been attending church for years and strived to make better decisions for my future and had struggled.
I progressed to a point of entering into instinctual behavior such as fight or flight with the amount of information coursing through my stream of consciousness. Suddenly, walking across the yard, I dropped to my knees and surrender to prayer. I at this point, I experienced a vision or an embodiment of light through my mind and body. I wept as I felt a presence unlike anything before. I was grateful to be able to observe something so strong and could only thank my heavenly father and Jesus Christ.
There is detail beyond the senses of what purification can feel like, but in my mind something was no longer weak. A backbone of truth now led me to carve a new chapter into my life. I left the house I was living in and entered into a new part of freedom. Discipline away from the darkness and standing firm in the face of what is in front of you. If you stare into the darkness too deep, eventually something stares back. What needs to be realized is the light shines the way, but it was also destined to be there. Meaning is the purpose you believe in, but here my soul had begun to have strength.
I packed it together and left bad behavior patterns at the throne. This began more and more to devotion in understanding how to be at peace while we face daily challenges. After growing in accordance with not what I wanted, but what is good for glory. It is like seeing the Garden of Adam and Eve around you, and trying to get others to see it. It tests all patience. To stare at the serpent in your life and create boundaries and have love in who you are inside. If the inside world doesn’t reflect the external it’s just observation and all burden can be shed for living new. We would all love to live in the abundant garden of our dreams, but life doesn’t always place us where we should be. There is always a chance to work things out instead of creating more problems in the future of a career move or job opportunity. Confidence in moving out and into the light to shine amongst the darkness demanding strength and intention. We are more than hormones monsters encased in a flood of conscious choices day after day.
The story is of resounding awe of feeling you are not worthy in who you are but then letting go and embracing the hope and light. Since being baptized in September 2024, there is a new crossing over into life that transcends the normal and works its way to my core being. It’s the heart of the matter and good natured people versus bad natured world around them. I have now fought and became a spiritual warrior in battle everyday to work harder and build a better life for myself. I moved to a better life experience and continue to grow in a positive direction. Eliminate the burdens and anything is possible.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
Non-creatives that are business only, matter of fact, narrow sided, black and white, these people may not see or understand the context of the power of light and the analogies made to think about. It can look like more than a physical life change or it can manifest in other ways then mental pressures building up to release and rebuild.
There is ultimately a clearing away of heart ache and hurt. The pain can no longer be inflicted and then strength intertwined with faith in doing what is upright. To stand and face the adversary of the unspoken injustices in the systems around us. I will try to put into words what sometimes feels like there are no words that can say what needs to be said or needs to be heard or read. This I offer to you for guidance towards what is good and worthy to be loved in your life from mine.
Genuine does not come along easy as time moves onward marching to the daily beat. There is a brokenness that can be mended no matter what it takes, to stand in good faith knowing this is where I stand. If I fall and lay down to silent voiceless reason, then my voice is gone. Where the artificial has taken too much damage and now nothing feels real anymore look back. Remember behind the hope of a better tomorrow peace can be found no matter what you have. Restoring the presence of light opens doors. He is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path always. Attract the right things in life and it can still make a mark on life. It’s not all artificial intelligence listening to you and taking notes. Even if my style of writing may be replicated, the meaning and life behind my words cannot be recreated at anytime by artificial intelligence. As sounds in a vacuum dissipate to nothing, so too does the ideas that things have to be accepted the way they are taken or perceived. The voice is yours to own and if you don’t have an opinion on everything or have heard it all, there is still something reaching out that is more powerful than you realized.
Challenge the desire and belief in yourself to look deeper. If not in the Word of God, in a group of people that are going through similar life experiences with a church family. It takes years to embrace the darkest parts of yourself and face them no matter the situation. Fearless has conquered the old patterns that were preventing you from accomplishing the finished task of your soul. It’s not all business, money, family, cars, houses, and all material things, but it is a unified oneness with the creator and his creation. To be a part of the greater design you can envision it, but it is always out of reach. Keep getting there and shine your light and hold the strength to be kind in the face of fear to stand tall against obstacles.
You are a masterpiece and here for a reason. The main character is you and this cannot be conformed to the darkness in this world. Take a chance to try to understand where you fit in this world and find out quickly we are nothing without faith. Whether you do or don’t see the darkness in yourself or others, it doesn’t stop being changed by the grace of light revealing truth and love in your life. Please seek what the Good News means to your soul. New life and light are there on the horizon waiting with open arms. Seek and it will be found. Ask and it will be answered.
I pray everyone who reads my article learns happiness, good health, a strong foundation, good courage, and has a new spark of light in themselves that doesn’t go out. I pray you can live in communion with grace, find your purpose, and find success before moving onto the greater afterlife. The resurrected life lives in you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Contact Info:
- Website: X account @ahaworldseries
- Facebook: https://Facebook.com/tyson.rpm
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthomson
Image Credits
Photography captured by Andrew Tyson Thomson
Portrait photo captured by Photographer Brandon Michael Mann