"I think you'd better give me that gun."

Prompt: Recall a situation when your courage was tested
from www.journalingprompts.com

I'm not sure whether this situation was an act of courage or merely a thoughtless reaction which placed me in danger but turned out well.

I was the Associate Pastor at Grace UM Church in Memphis. One afternoon the secretary and I were the only persons in the building. I was at my desk with my back to the door, and the secretary was sitting at a table, facing the back wall of the main office, unable to see the office door or the room.

For some long-forgotten reason, I left my desk and entered the main office. I saw a junior high-aged boy with a gun in his hand walking toward the secretary. Without thinking, I said, "I think you'd better give me that gun." He did. He gave me the gun! Of all the options he had, he walked over and gave the gun to me.

I said, "You wait here while we call the police." Realizing that he still had options, the boy ran out of the room, out of the building, never to be seen again. (I didn't have the gun pointed at him, trying to hold him in place. I suppose I thought that since he had been so cooperative once, he would cooperate again.)

We called the police, who arrived quickly. The first officer who entered the room said, "I think you'd better give me that gun," I did. It was loaded.