How to Share Your Faith Using Mission:Impossible III
IMF (Impossible Mission Force) secret agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has tried to retire from active spy duty. Instead of facing the action himself, he wants to train new IMF agents. As often happens in life, the best laid plans can go awry. Mission:Impossible III finds Hunt quickly back in the thick of the action, fighting the film's villain, someone movie goers will love to loathe-international weapons dealer Owen Davian.
Hunt quickly pulls together a team to help him fight the evil Davian and rescue his love interest, AKA, Julia. Whether jumping off buildings or evading exploding cars, Hunt is larger than life and the stunts are impressive! (With Cruise making $75 million for the movie he should do his own stunts and they should be impressive!!)
When Hunt pulls his team of players together to confront Davian, viewers can see how a team is much more effective in accomplishing its purposes than if Hunt had taken on this task alone and tried to fly solo. The value and benefits of pulling together as a team are one of the truths about life that permeate every age and every society. It's true in the high-tech, violence-saturated world of M:i:III and it was true thousands of years ago when the writer of Ecclesiastes said,
"By yourself you're unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope isn't easily snapped." (Eccl. 4:12, The Message)
We all need a few solid Christian friends to come alongside us and support us in our daily walk with God. If you don't already have such friends in your life-then one of your priorities should be to do what it takes to find and cultivate the kind of friends who will be there for you in the grind of life. Cheering you when things go well, encouraging you when the tough stuff hits, but doing the Christian life alongside you, urging you to grow in your relationship with God and in your efforts to share Jesus with the world around you. Youth group is a great place to seek out such friends and build solid relationships with fellow believers.
But even more important than tapping into the support and resources your friends provide, you already have access to some incredible resources God provides. While we see plenty of cool gadgets and skills displayed by Hunt's M:i:III team, in our battle against evil in the world, God has made available to us some supernatural resources-and these don't self-destruct after initial use! They include:
- His Holy Spirit, who lives in us and is our guide, counselor, comforter and the power of God in us.
- His Word, the Bible, which is our roadmap for living a life in relationship with God.
- Prayer, which is our lifeline of continual conversation with the Creator of the Universe!
As the M:i:III buzz kicks off the summer movie season, look for ways to talk about God, using Mission:Impossible III. Here are some ideas to get you launched into a spiritual conversation:
- Why is a group together stronger than a solo individual? What does this say about the relational nature of humans? Share how God made us that way and how He made us to be in relationship with Him!
- Why do you think there is evil in the world, like that villain Owen Davian? For help talking with friends about the question of evil in the world check out the Soul Fuel Evil: Blame It on God?
Your mission, should you choose to accept it is incredibly important-to reach out to a lost and hurting world with the Good News of Jesus. So step up, use the supernatural resources God has provided you (His Spirit, His Word and prayer) and reach out to your friends on a mission that is definitely possible!
