Never underestimate the potential of a self-disciplined young man.

The potential of young men and women (especially as patterned for our example in Holy Scripture) has been a significant theme of the public preaching ministry of Vision Forum. Well, yesterday I got a dose of my own medicine by a pre-adolescent Zorro who ably demonstrated, in living colors, the tactical and physical potential of boys who apply themselves toward a specific goal.

The scene was a quiet gymnasium where my boys and I were receiving some private fencing lessons. After nearly an hour of footwork and bladework, our coach (a former Soviet officer and Russian fencing champion) told me to prepare for combat. He clapped his hands. Up walked a pip-squeak of a fifth-grade boy, fully garbed in fencing regalia. The boy shook my hand, saluted, and then proceeded to slice me and dice me like the Romco Vegematic. Ten minutes later, huffing, puffing, and pooped, I reached over to shake the victorious fifth grader’s hand. “Hey, you’re not bad,” the boy said to me. Which I translated as a very polite and respectful way of expressing astonishment that a forty-year-old geezer could hold a blade for ten minutes, let alone make it to the end of a match.

Our coach just watched and grinned. I found out later that the boy was a gold medalist and the national champion in his age group (a fact which only slightly eased the pain). But the whole event just reminded me that there is nothing like being bested in combat six ways from Sunday by a fifth-grader to give a man perspective.

Boy am I sore today.