One night coming home from the local Wal-Mart, I was at a stoplight waiting for the light to turn green to continue my trip back to my house. I proceeded to hit the seek button on my radio to find something decent to listen to. I finally ended up listening to an oldies station playing classic hit songs from the sixties and early seventies. As I continued towards my house, I began to listen to an old song that started to play on the stereo in my truck. I had heard this song numerous times before whether it was from my father playing the greatest hits CD, the radio, or seeing the famous concert in Central Park on public television. This time, the experience was different. For the first time, I began to analyze each line and verse of this song as to the true meanings of the words expressed. I gained a newfound respect and love for this song as this song placed me in a pondering state about some personal issues in my life. Before I proceed any further, I would like for you to read the lyrics to this song as typed below:

A winter's day
In a deep and dark December
I am alone
Gazing from my window
To the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow

I am a rock
I am an island

I've built walls
A fortress deep and mighty
That none may penetrate
I have no need of friendship
Friendship causes pain
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain

I am a rock
I am an island

Don't talk of love
Well I've heard the word before
It's sleeping in my memory
I won't disturb the slumber
Of feelings that have died
If I never loved I never would have cried

I am a rock
I am an island

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me
I am shielded in my armor
Hiding in my room
Safe within my womb
I touch no one and no one touches me

I am a rock
I am an island

And a rock feels no pain
And an island never cries

There are some of you right now who are so familiar with the song that you are probably humming the melody and replaying the famous acoustical guitar riff at the beginning and ending of this song as you mentally sing the song with the same emotions and tones the performers laid the tracks out in the studio. In case you have no idea about this song, the song is entitled "I Am A Rock" written by Paul Simon and performed by Simon and Garfunkel on the album Sounds of Silence released in 1965. As I mentally replayed the lyrics over and over again in my mind. I saw more and more of myself and the way that the experiences of life still affects my thinking and once forged my outlook and perspective of life. As I saw more and more of myself through the lyrics of this song, I began to enter into a deep state of repentance for the wrongs and isolation that I placed myself in and I went through a deep state of grieving and healing from the past hurts, disappointments, and rejections that I faced throughout my life. It was there that I heard God Almighty say something to me I will never forget.

Bob, you are not the only one

It was at this point that I realized that the majority of Christian men on planet earth today currently experience and express these same types of feelings I was feeling. Then the revelation came to me again as I started replaying this song over and over again. Each verse began to take deeper meaning as I began to understand better the ways that God works in my life. At the same time, I also began to understand the inner workings of me in reference to what makes me tick, what excites me, what motivates me, what bothers me, etc. It is at this point where a deception believed and an ignorance learned as a child starts to break off and work has to be done to bring myself back into the society that I am Biblically commanded to bring forth the Great Commission to. There is a huge difference between being in the world and being of the world. This is a major area that the old Pentecostals and the holiness people missed the mark. Everybody on planet earth lives in the world. This is a real world with real people with real serious problems. Not every Christian is of the world in their morals, standards, practices, and beliefs. I have to live in this world and go to a real job and work with real people providing documentation and logistics to real problems. However, this does not mean that I go out to a bar after work and try to pick up naive women to take advantage of and etch another notch on the bedpost. Do you see the difference here? There is a far fetched extreme between being absorbed by the world system of thought and being confined to the point of the only thing that you can do is think about what you can not do.

Click Here for part two of A Rock Feels No Pain, And An Island Never Cries