Retired Paralympian Danielle Cekanor inspires students to be the light of the world

Former Paralympic swimmer Danielle Cekanor exhorted Liberty University students in Wednesday’s Convocation to be the light of the world, using their differences to uniquely shine and be obedient to God in the ways He calls them.

Cekanor, who has achondroplasia dwarfism, competed for Team Canada in the Summer Paralympics in Tokyo in 2021 after overcoming multiple challenges, including a major double-leg osteotomy surgery early in her career. She won two medals at the 2018 Pan Pacific Para Championships in Australia to punch her ticket to Tokyo. She and her husband Kevin produce the “A Little Bit of Light” podcast, where they discuss using your unique differences to shine in the world and make it brighter.

Despite her success in the pool, the focus of her message was not about her athletic career; it was about how, through her relationship with Christ, she has positively changed her self-image from a very young age.

“I always knew that I was different. It doesn’t take a science degree to figure out that something’s different about me,” she said. “I knew that I was different, and I knew that everybody else knew it too.”

As an active child who was involved in multiple sports, Cekanor said she became discouraged when she could not keep up with her friends in sports due to her height.

“All my friends started getting taller than me and faster than me,” she said. “And I was really frustrated because I felt God had given me this competitive desire that I could do nothing about.”

At 11 years old, a swim coach approached her and told her about Paralympics. She joined a swim club in October 2008, had her international debut three years later for Canada at the Parapan Games, then for the next 13 years represented her homeland at the international level and became a Paralympian before retiring at the age of 27.

Cekanor said she still struggled with her self-perception throughout her career, and she related it to the students present who might be experiencing insecurities or fears about being different.

“Sometimes what tends to happen is we allow these differences about ourselves to disqualify us from the purposes of God, and they end up becoming our main focus,” she said. “We get stuck and, over time, the world around us starts getting louder, it starts closing in, and we compare ourselves. … Sooner or later, we believe those voices, and we find ourselves resisting God and the ways He wants to work through us.”

Cekanor read from Jeremiah 1:4-9, focusing on the prophet’s response to God calling him to obedience in prophesying to the people of Israel.

“Jeremiah grew up in a priestly family, which means he grew up likely knowing the word of God and had somewhat of an understanding of who God was, like a lot of us today. Yet he still felt extremely unqualified, and I’d go so far as to say too different, to believe that God wanted to use him in a mighty way,” she said. “God meets Jeremiah at the end of … what he could physically and humanly do … and bridges the gap, stretches out His hand, and gives him the words to say.”

Cekanor told the students that God desires to be in a relationship with them and to have them lean on Him for strength. She read Matthew 5:14-16 to emphasize how God calls us to be the light of the world.

“Our God-given purpose is to shine the light of Jesus into the world through the unique ways God has made us,” she said. “Jesus didn’t say, ‘Hey Dee, you are dwarfism.’ He didn’t say, ‘You are your mistake.’ … He said, ‘You are the light of the world.’”

Cekanor said people tend to hide what makes them different instead of letting it shine, recalling the time she happily wore a giraffe costume for a party in kindergarten that made her look taller. She said once she took the giraffe costume off, however, it was a relief because it was heavy and burdensome.

“You were never meant to cover up the parts of you that were meant to shine,” she said. “You were never designed to cover up the wonderful parts of who God created you to be.”

“As I’ve given my disability over to God, He has reshaped the way I see myself. As I have given Him my thoughts of what I thought my life should be, and taken on His thoughts of who I am, I’m confident in who I am.”

She acknowledged that “shining” is not always easy, but it starts with being obedient to what God asks of you.

“A lot of times, being obedient starts with being honest with where we’re at and telling God what we don’t like and asking him to help us through it,” she said, comparing it to how God helped Jeremiah in his weakness. “He hasn’t left us to say ‘Yes’ and to walk and be the light of the world on our own. He’s given us His spirit to empower us, to equip us, to give us the wisdom, to give us the strength, and the boldness to do the thing that He has called every single person to do, which is to be the light of the world.”

Cekanor ended by sharing a testimony of when she was in school in Montreal, Canada, in 2018. She was walking home one day, and a homeless man and drug addict named Shane started yelling degrading profanities at her about her size. Though she went home and cried at first, she felt God calling her to buy him a meal. So, she went back to Shane, bought him dinner, heard his story of being separated from his wife and family and enduring many trials, and she prayed over him. Cekanor continued to buy him dinners and pray with him until one day she stopped seeing him on her walks.

Five years later, Cekanor was giving a message in the church she grew up in 2,000 miles away in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Shane walked into the church. Cekanor reunited with him, and she realized he had since become clean and reconciled with his wife and family, who he introduced her to after the service. Shane told Cekanor he remembered that she prayed with him.

“Do not think that your life is not valuable enough to shine the light of Jesus through you. Your light, students, truly matters. I can’t shine it for you … This is on you,” she said. “One day, we will live in radiance of God’s light forever. One day, there will be no pain, there will be no sorrow, there will be no mean people; we will live in God’s light forever. But until then, we must choose to be the light of the world — to do the little things that He is asking you. It won’t be easy, but it is possible, and He will transform and shine through what you give Him. Give Him everything.”