About the video

Sunday Morning Jetpack is a segment that highlights any kind of media that will provide you with some much needed good energy. You can find spirituality in the music, movies, podcasts, and other media you see every day. This article expands the Sunday Morning Jetpack video titled “Feel the Need.”

In her song, “Feel the Need,” Eryn Allen Kane calls each of us to feel the need in the world for love. Each of us has a light in us that is unique to us, and we are meant to not keep it to ourselves – we are meant to spread it to those around us. This is what leadership is.

This little light is yours

But not yours to keep

It’s just a loan

You gotta spread it around

…Don’t you feel the need for love?

Feel the Need – Eryn Allen Kane

In the song, Eryn Allen Kane explains that there is a light in you that is unique to you. It’s yours, but it’s not yours to keep. We are meant to spread around the love that those in our lives need. 

The Bible tells us that leadership is not about seeking status,  but about shining a light through doing good and serving others (Luke 22:24-27). Our world is in desperate need of new leaders, but it can be easy to shrink back in fear when called to step up.

What are your thoughts toward leadership? Do you shy away in fear, settle into complacency, or believe God chose you to step up?

Let’s break down the lyrics of this song with some scriptures to learn how to become the leaders God is calling each of us to be.

This little light is yours, but not yours to keep

But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.” But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else.”

Exodus 4:10-13 NLT

God called Moses to lead the Israelites, but Moses resisted because he thought he wasn’t cut out to be a leader. He seemed to have in his mind what a leader was supposed to look like, and felt his weaknesses disqualified him from that title. He wanted God to send someone else, perhaps someone they thought would be better at the job.

Many of us relate to Moses, thinking we don’t measure up, have too many weaknesses, and therefore can’t possibly lead or accomplish anything great. 

But when we focus on our weaknesses, we miss out on appreciating the ways God made us unique and original. We also might become prone to comparing ourselves with others:

Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

Galatians 5:25 MSG

When we believe that we are originals and that God has far more interesting things to do with our lives than be better or worse than another person, we can let go of the fear that we aren’t talented enough for leading, and become who God is calling us to be. 

Reflection questions

  • How do you compare yourself to others? 
  • What specific purpose is God calling you to live out?

It’s just a loan, you gotta spread it around

When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, sir, please leave us—I’m too much of a sinner for you to have around.” For he was awestruck by the size of their catch, as were the others with him, [10] and his partners too—James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Jesus replied, “Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for the souls of men!”

Luke 5:8-10 TLB

Another fear we might have with leadership is the fear of failure. Oftentimes when we’ve failed or made mistakes in the past, we hold back or shy away from stepping up because we don’t want to mess up any more than we already have. 

This was the fear Peter had in Luke 5:8-10. He had tried to catch fish on his own just before this and had failed to catch any. When Jesus performed a miracle, Peter’s first response was not to look at the amazing thing Jesus accomplished, but at how “much of a sinner” he was. 

Peter was focused on himself and his failures but Jesus wasn’t thinking about that at all. Jesus was focused on Peter’s purpose and who he was capable of becoming, not what he’d done. God has the same heart toward us.

Reflection questions

  • What past guilt or mistakes are holding you back from leading?
  • What purpose is God calling you toward?

Don’t you feel the need for love?

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. [19] We love each other because he loved us first.

1 John 4:18-19 NLT

When we see how much God loves us despite our insecurities, weaknesses, or past mistakes, we are freed from the fear and free to love and serve the people around us the same way God loves us. So how do we love the way God loves?

Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.

Ephesians 5:1 MSG

If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best of him, and always stand your ground in defending him.

1 Corinthians 13:7 TLB

These two scriptures give us some great examples of how God loves us, and how we can love other people. First, as Ephesians 5 says, we can learn from God to love like he does, which is not cautious and holding back, but extravagant and generous

In 1 Corinthians 13, we learn that loving others means always believing in, expecting the best of, and standing our ground in defending others.

God has vision for us and sees who we can become rather than what we’ve done, and so we can have that same heart for other people. 

Reflection questions

  • What would it look like for you to love others extravagantly?
  • Who needs you to believe in, expect the best of, and fight for them?

For a real-life example of what choosing to love anyway looks like, watch our Sunday Morning Jetpack video, “Feel the Need”:

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