Grace can be taught. And the lesson can often be painful to learn. I embarrassed my parents publicly for the first time when I was just six years old. I remember the experience well. My bratty behavior at the Christmas family dinner party in my father's workplace showed disrespect for his colleague who generously had given her evening to entertain the children present with the “Night Before Christmas.” I consistently interrupted her and blurted out the next line as if I were the next Albert Einstein.

On the ride home, my father informed me that I would be getting a lesson from his board of education as it was applied to the seat of my learning. I deserved it. What I did not anticipate was the harder part of my lesson: a personal apology not only to my parents but also to his colleague, whose work I had essentially destroyed and whose generosity I had disrupted.

I walked to her house the next day. By myself. My instructions were clear: apologize and repent. Place myself at her mercy. She received me warmly, accepted my apology with grace, and offered me a fresh start. A second chance, an opportunity for redemption. She understood that I, as a human being, had the capacity for change, to grow and learn from my mistakes. Neither she, nor anyone at my father's workplace, ever mentioned the events of that evening again.

The lesson was clear: I had made an embarrassing mistake. I had acknowledged my mistake and asked for forgiveness. In doing so, I received the opportunity to learn from my mistake and grow forward. Grace taught; grace accepted. Grace learned.

Sadly, it appears that, in 2009, grace has left the building.

Our grace-less society experienced its epitome in a quiet way this past week when Officer Robert Powell, a Dallas police officer, resigned from his post after his inexcusable treatment of the occupants of a vehicle he had pulled over for running a red light. Ryan and Tamisha Moats were rushing to the hospital to be with her mother, who lay dying in the emergency room. Ryan, an NFL player, cautiously ran through a red light with his flashers on. Officer Powell rightly pursued the Moats' vehicle into the parking lot of the hospital. From there, Powell's judgment evaporated. His hard, rigid perspective took over. He pulled a gun on the Moats, who desperately tried to explain how they were simply trying to get to the ER. They asked for understanding and mercy. Instead, Powell detained Ryan and his father-in-law for thirteen minutes, berating and belittling them, with the scene captured in video from his patrol car camera. Powell even threatened to take them to the police station if they did not cooperate with his rigid demands.

Tamisha went on into the hospital in spite of Powell's directives. She was able to be with her mother before she died. Ryan and his father-in-law were not released from their humiliating encounter with Officer Powell in time to see her before she died.

Once the video hit the internet, the public outcry was shrill and unrelenting. The police chief made a public apology for his officer's poor judgment and behavior. Blogs filled with angry reactions.