How to Share Your Faith Using The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
The adrenaline-rush world of illegal street racing is back on the movie screen this summer with the latest installment of the blockbuster movie series The Fast and the Furious. The Tokyo Drift sequel moves the action to Asia, introducing the underground Japanese drift racing scene.
Sean Boswell is a loner rebelling against the superficial world around him. He uses street racing as an escape from an unhappy broken home and from the emptiness he sees around him and feels inside. When Sean finds himself busted by the police for his high-risk activities, he's given the choice: jail time or ship out to live with his estranged father, a career military man stationed in Tokyo. Sean chooses Japan over jail and it isn't long before he has the opportunity to once again fill his internal emptiness with racing - Japanese style.
While most of the movie's appeal revolves around the super-charged, high-octane, gravity defying world of racing, you can use this film to talk about God with your friends. From the initial glimpse provided into Boswell's life, it's clear he's looking for something more in life. God made people to be in a complete, soul-satisfying relationship with Him and with other humans. When that is out of sync, people like Sean pursue some thing, and sometimes any thing, to fill the hole left by their broken relationships with God and with others. Sean Boswell chose the adrenaline rush of street racing to fill that emptiness, but everyone living outside of a relationship with God pursues something to fill that void. Whether it's clothes or cars, sports or sex, beer or boarding - many teens go hyper-overboard pursuing alternatives to fill the relational hole in their soul.
Here are some conversation starters to try with your friends:
- What do you think would attract someone to high-risk behavior like street racing? Do you think Sean Boswell is trying to escape the unhappiness and hurt in his life through street racing?
- Many teens have been emotionally hurt by their parents, whether through divorce, emotional distance or conflict. Do you know people who struggling with this kind of stuff? Explain the kind of Father-child relationship we can have with God through Jesus. The Bible describes it this way,
"So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's very own children, adopted into his family - calling him "Father, dear Father." (Rom. 8:15)
- Do you know people who are loners or rebels? Are you intimidated by them? Do you ever try to cross the relational barriers they've erected? Can you think of ways to reach out to people like that with God's love and grace?
If followers of Jesus don't reach out to the hurting and the loners, someone like Twinkie in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift will step up with an offer of friendship. God's love and forgiveness provide the ultimate adrenaline rush, so look for ways to invite your friends along for the wild and crazy ride that comes when you have a relationship with the God of the Universe!
