Like all childhood friends, a bond is formed by common hobbies, and with Jake Forsythe, the common ground was flowing with hobbies, like ants on an anthill during harvest season.
Collecting die-cast cars, watching
movies on VHS, playing Call of Duty on the Xbox, going on bike rides through
the subdivision, reading Calvin and Hobbes comics, and playing Air Soft in our
backyards to name several.
One of Jake’s defining character
traits is his unwavering devotion to something he puts his mind to. So, when it
came to one-on-one airsoft battles with our pistols, he treated it like he was
James Bond’s sidekick – that, or he was the next Bond, Jake Bond. He was so
good at airsoft, my clearest memory is of him hiding behind the pool shed while
I am getting my rear end kicked by 10 pellets at a time because he was playing
the proper way while I was a sitting duck looking for him. When I would finally
feel confident enough that I caught him off guard behind the shed, to my
surprise, he was gone. Five pellet bruises later, he was behind the trees shooting
where he used to be and hitting me while I was, once again, a sitting duck.
Eventually, our game of airsoft would
end because I was so frustrated that I could never find him. Ten years later, I
attended a private university while he went into the Marines – shocker.
While I will forever respect Jake for
bringing Black Hawk Down to the countryside backyard of my home, the strategy
he employed was not only for self-preservation, but also to outwit, outplay, and
outlast me like it was a game of Survivor. What Jake did differently than me
was treat each airsoft pellet like it was his last shot, and to preserve his
own life, even if the harm he did to me was hit me with a dozen bee stings. The
additional benefit of his strategy was it promised him a one-sided massacre that
made me out to be the laughingstock of the operation. A target bag filled with
corn from five feet away would have been a more difficult target to hit.
Approximately 250 years ago, during
the Revolutionary War, while I would guess the tactic wasn’t born, it proved to
be decisive in helping the Patriots overcome extreme disadvantages in skill,
organization, and experience to send the British Loyalists back to Boston where
they camped for the night to regroup from the ambush.
What ambush? Well, the first battle of
the Revolutionary War, known as The Battle of Lexington and Concord, the
British Loyalists’ goal was not to wipe out the Continental Army, but to scare
them into a quick surrender of their weapons. Just hand over your weapons and no
blood would be shed. Of course, it also meant complete control for King George
and Great Britain. By the time the King George troops came over to complete
their mission, the Continental Army had enough time to strategize against them.
While the British were confident they would convince the Patriots to surrender their
arms without firing a single shot, they were horribly mistaken.
What I love about the first battle is
that its victory over King George’s British Loyalists led to the Declaration of
Independence being written and signed, which is why we call 2026 the 250 year
anniversary of America. However, the war was far from over, but it did supply
the underdog Patriot army plenty of confidence as well as bulked up their
resume that would eventually convince the French to aid them in their desire to
become a free nation.
Just like any historic event that
caused a seismic shift in the rest of our lives on planet Earth, any victory
that led to major future changes of this magnitude has its challenges. And with
challenges comes plenty of sacrifice.
And also creativity.
Think about it, eventually after
getting shot by enough plastic pellets, you would think I would eventually hide
behind a fence post and come up with a new gameplan on how to defeat Jake, who
was probably slathering himself with mud and tree leaves as camouflage while I
was stumbling around looking for a place of refuge.
Even though I would love to say I did
put my creativity to use by switching things up on my adversary, using the
outcome of the Revolutionary War as motivation, I did not. But it would have
come in handy if I hoped to turn the tables on him and pull out a surprising
victory that would shock even myself.
In 1775, when the British army
successfully stormed through Lexington after the “Shot Heard Round The World”
was fired, the moved towards the only bridge that led to Concord, the North
Bridge. In the town of Concord was where a lot of ammunition and various
weapons were stored, but instead of handing them over to the British without a
fight, they hid them.
Hide-and-seek was not the only thing
that made this battle an interesting one, though. When the British set fire to
the small – and I mean small – amount of weapons they did find, a group of
Patriots saw smoke billowing below Punkatasset Hill, where they were stationed
and laying in wait for the right opportunity to strike the Loyalists. Well,
this plume of smoke was the right opportunity because they mistook it for the
village of Concord being set ablaze. As the rushed down the hill, it pushed the
British army back where they first arrived.
Remember when I mentioned only one way
in to Concord? That means there was one way out, so when the British were surprised
by this brave attack from atop Punkatasset Hill, they needed to get back to
Boston to regroup. To do that, they were forced to go back a predictable route,
which leads to the entire point of this story.
Shoot-and-Scoot.
During my skirmishes with Jake, it
didn’t just annoy me to the point of possibly ending my friendship with him because
of his very particular set of skills at embarrassing me in my own backyard, it
probably annoyed the British too, because they were also victims of this
strategy. Of course, they didn’t have a friendship on the line, but their own
lives, which I am eternally grateful that Jake wasn’t shooting me with a musket
– I would have been long gone if my life were on the line.
Historians say what made this march
back to Boston particularly difficult for those fighting on the king’s side is
not only did they have no where else to go, but the land they marched through
was not the layout they were used to fighting in. First, it was an Atlantic
Ocean from home and they were used to open fields, not complex terrain full of
buildings, boulders, and homes to hide in and behind. However, the Continental Army
was on home field, so they knew the land unlike the British Loyalists, even if
they didn’t know how to fire their musket the way the British army did.
This distinction paid dividends for
the Patriots, because this is how the Shoot-and-Scoot strategy came into play.
Shoot, hide behind a cluster of trees or under the window of a two-story
apartment, and it leaves the British soldiers looking around like sitting
ducks, if not dead from the shot. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It did for me,
because that’s exactly how Jake made me feel: like a sitting duck. It’s like
trying to catch a bucket of water to prevent yourself from getting wet, or
trying to catch a ghost and contain it.
Imagine standing in the middle of a
dirt road, dehydrated, disappointed by defeat, and stumbling drunk from the
heat and exhaustion, and now add a handful of Patriots shooting and hiding
behind all of the physical obstacles that only the opponent knew about. Any
difficult day prior to this would be a cake walk.
When I read this part of the text to
my fifth graders, it makes it sound so easy for the Patriots. Let’s not forget:
the Patriots were farmers, blacksmiths, carpenters, merchants, tailors, and other
occupations that didn’t require munitions before they joined the war. None of
these positions required them to handle a gun. If they had a gun, it was for
hunting unarmed animals for food, not to kill other humans who
could fire back.
Also worth noting: the Patriots were
just British people who fled the homeland to have freedom from King George III,
so they were firing against their own neighbors, British vs. British. This is why
it was the British Patriots (or Continental Army) vs. the British Loyalists.
However, historians also refer to the Patriot army as the American army because
they occupied American land at the time.
The bottom line is the British
army was supposed to be infinitely better and more prepared than the Patriots.
They made a living training to be a soldier. It should have been like an 8th
grade middle school basketball team playing against the Golden State Warriors
NBA professional basketball team. The level of disparity is astronomical! Why
would you put your life on the line knowing full well there’s a 99% chance
you’ll be obliterated, even if you are at home and the Loyalists are considered
“the away team.”
Yet, damage was done and the British
left Lexington and Concord feeling extremely disappointed and shocked that the
Continental Army successfully pulled off a stunt like that. It was a
miracle! Shoot-and-Scoot caused the British to flee back to Boston with little
to show for their mission. It was a failure, and there was no respawning in
this situation like the video games allow.
Often, I feel the same about sin. I get down on myself and feel like there’s no way out. No strategy that will cause the sin to flee – or me to flee the sin. A friend of mine once corrected me and said, “You always have enough time to refuse to submit to temptation.” Unfortunately, it can be easy to fall into the victim mentality and think sin is too strong for you to overcome.
In my career, when I feel tempted to mistreat someone at work
because I feel mistreated, it can be easy to think I have already lost the
battle when I feel temptation to react poorly.
Can you imagine if the 80 or so
militiamen (Patriots) decided to give up before the trained British soldiers
came? Can you imagine if they said, “They are too experienced and I’m just a
carpenter! I make IKEA furniture and they kill for a living! I couldn’t
overcome them! Let’s just surrender.”
Instead, they strategized. They
weren’t even promised victory for trying! They couldn’t tell the future, so
their attempts to gain freedom from the British control could have easily
fallen short from the start. The point is, they had good reason to quit; we
don’t. In fact, the Bible tells us so:
“No temptation has overtaken except
what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted
beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a
way out so that you can endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13, NIV)
This verse is why we Shoot-And-Scoot against sin. Yes, Satan is strong. Yes, Satan has been doing this since the beginning of time – he is well-versed in tempting us away from God. But, if we believe Scripture wholeheartedly, then we do have a way out. Victory is moments away. Unfortunately, too often we don’t strategize with God through our sin so it no longer has control over us. We withdraw from the fight before the last part of verse 13! I am not suggesting it is not hard, but I am promising God has a solution to your struggle.
In fact, he is the solution! We shouldn’t wait until
after we lose the battle to pick ourselves back up – let’s flip the script and strategize
while the enemy is tempting!
The fight is not over. The Patriots
knew that; and when they had difficulty believing it, along came strong leaders
like George Washington who helped them believe it. But, belief must take us to
a place of strategizing in alignment with that belief. You might also call strategizing
taking action, and in this case, the two are synonymous.
The Patriots didn’t just sit in
customs houses and taverns discussing ways to boycott, get back at King George,
and refuse to pay his taxes. They sure did discuss, but they also acted on it
and eventually, they had to take further action once war was declared. You must
take action. Sin will continue crouching at your door until you do
something drastic – until you strategize in a creative way that turns the
tables in favor of victory for you.
Jake didn’t just talk about his love
for the military, their tactics, and materiel, he lived it out in our Airsoft
battles, and I can bet you every dollar I have he won every 1-v-1 match we ever
had. I didn’t win one of them. Thank the good Lord we didn’t keep track of who won
and who lost, but I don’t think we needed to because it always ended the same.
I was lucky to get one shot off, typically. Why? Simple. He played the part by
strategizing and taking action.
When we are faced with temptation,
distress, discouragement, or lured into making poor choices, we have time to
strategize a way out and glorify God in the process. We are given the gift of self-control,
even in the face of danger. We may not have control over the surrounding forces
that put pressure on us, but we can determine how prepared we are to face that
pressure. To prepare, strategizing is a prerequisite to action and even works
together. The Patriots strategizing and acting on that strategy to defeat the
British in the Battle of Lexington and Concord is a perfect example of this.
The result was an independent America
was born, which makes this part of history monumental, if you ask me. The same result can be said of us overcoming
temptation with God’s help. Just like the Continental Army’s ultimate victory
over the King George III led to freedom, overcoming temptation can lead to freedom
if we’re willing to strategize with God’s help.
The beautiful difference between the
Revolutionary War and our fight against sin is that Jesus already fought and defeated
sin – he already enlisted in the war against sin that we were supposed to fight
and died so we could be set free from its clutches. When we fall into temptation,
we are behaving like Jesus never did that. See, we can strategize with Jesus because
he helped us win before we were even conceived into the world. This is why God “will
not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.” No temptation is capable of
forcing you into sin because God already sent Jesus to take that burden.
That is much better news that going up
against Jake in Airsoft, I can tell you that. At least you have time to find
freedom. Me, during those Airsoft days, never.
That is why I signed my own Treaty of
Paris* with Jake in June 2002.
*For those of you who are not American History nerds, the Treaty of Paris is the official agreement signed in 1783 by the US and Great Britain to end the Revolutionary War and allowed the Thirteen Colonies to be a free, sovereign groups of independent states that would form the United States of America.