Being Light with Deborah Van Der Bij

How did you find the shoot?

It was great, it was great, good vibes. Um, yeah, I'm just excited to see how it's going to turn out.

What does light mean to you? 

To me, as a follower of Christ, the light means Jesus. It means the creator of the universe who came as the light into the darkness, and just as for us as Christians, to illuminate that light, the light of the Lord in a dark world.

So, what's been your journey in terms of coming to the realisation? 

Oh, such a good one. Um, I think many people can relate to this, that I walked away from the light for a while, speaking about the light being Christ, to live my life in the world, my "best life". And I just got to experience what it's like to be away from the source of light and life, and it's so dark in that place.

So, after coming back to Christ, I just saw the importance of actually sharing with other people what we're missing out on when we settle for the darkness. So, for me, it's so important to spread the light, to let other people know this is out there for you, out there in the darkness, you might think that you're seeing clearly, but that's not all there is. There's so much more for you. So, I think it's just so important to spread that light and let people know that there's hope, um, the Lord loves us, and yeah, just all of that.

What are practical ways that we can show the light of Jesus? 

I think the main thing is love, loving our neighbors as ourselves, as Jesus says, which is the hardest part. But you can see that when you fight darkness and perhaps negativity and hate with love, people are kind of shocked because they don't expect that. So, I think that's a good way to carry the light of Christ into our situations. When we want to act in our flesh and we want to be mad and we want to react, so like, think, how would Jesus act in this situation? And then, imitating him. I think that's a great way that we can all show the light of Christ in every single situation, because we all walk into difficult things.

What I think is super important, is the creative gifts and talents that God has given us that glorify him, to do the thing that the Lord has placed on your heart to do, because it's in that that you get to spread the light. It's in doing what God has called you to do and the gifts and talents that he's placed within you that you get to inspire others and just, yeah, spread that light. I think those are some good things.

I think we can overcomplicate it a lot. But yeah, just do what the Lord has called you to do. When you walk with him, His desires become your desires, and like, yeah, he wants you to pursue the things he's placed on your heart.

What’s some of the things that have stopped you from your call?

Oh, I definitely think, um, a big one was what other people thought of me, because, you know, when you're in a dark room and you're the only one carrying around a light, thinking about it that way, that's quite scary in a way. People are going to look at you, people are going to think that you're strange. So, uh, other people's opinions definitely held me back from sharing the light of Christ, and I think I'm not the only one in that. Um, it can be quite lonely sometimes. But you know, Jesus said that we're called to be like a city on a hill, that light point in the darkness. It's like in the distance, "Wow, why is there light over there?" That's what we're supposed to be. So, um, honestly, that's like the main thing I think right now that has held me back, yeah.

What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone reading this about how to be light?

Pray, be in prayer, because I think when things are difficult and when it's hard to know how to share the light, our situations are also, um, unique, right? So I can't give one answer that's going to suit everyone, but the one who can is Jesus. He knows all of our situations individually. So, pray on it if you don't know how to go about sharing the light in your workspace or university, wherever it is. 

Ask the Lord to give you strength and to give you courage and to just encourage you, because he will do that. He's a good father. And, um, something else is, yeah, to just what I said before, don't think about what other people are thinking about you. The main thing is that we live for an audience of one. So, God's opinion of you is all that matters. So, if he has placed it on your heart to share the light so other people can also come to know Christ, then please go ahead, do that, do that thing. So, yeah.

What should we expect from you for the future? 

Oh, good question. Well, sometimes I'm not sure myself, because I'm really just walking one step at a time with the Lord. Hopefully, more content that will encourage people on their walks with Christ. I think that's the main thing: spreading the light of Christ in the darkness that social media and the internet can be. So hopefully, more Christian content, more vlogs, um, just to let you know that you're not alone.