We Are All Broken
Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.
I have some thoughts for this season of reflection that began with Passover and ends with Easter.
Last summer at the Aspen Ideas Festival, I interviewed a minister named T.D. Jakes. He is an African American pastor of a Dallas megachurch of more than 30,000 people. He said something that day I shall never forget.
He reminded us that no one is perfect, that we are all broken somewhere.
But he said that is not all bad. A key is broken in all the right places to fit a certain lock. When that key is placed in that lock, there is a quiet click. When we meet a person who is broken in the right places to accommodate our brokenness, there is a click.
It can happen in other ways: An introverted person hears that click when he finds a job that can only be done by a person who works well alone; or when we face a life-altering decision.
Whether it is a job, or a relationship or even faith, something clicks when we find the place that accommodates our uniqueness, or brokenness.
Some religions teach prayer — some call it meditation — but there is within each of us some mysterious, inner thing that tells us when something clicks — we don't know how or why, we just know.
We are all broken. But listening for that click can help us to unlock many doors. The voice is always there — we have only to listen.
By Bob Schieffer