I've just finished Isaiah 40 through 66, the words of consolation and restoration. There's a prayer — or more like an argument — because the writer is not too sure that there is a God, at least not for him. 

"You are our Father, and we have departed so far from You that we have changed our way of believing You even exist. I don't believe that You understand us anymore. Why do You make us do bad things? Why do You cloud our minds so that we do anything we please? Why don't You keep us from doing dumb and hurtful things? O, Lord, why do You let us sin?"

Allow me to use my words. God, if you really care for me, You could have given me enough money and things so that I wouldn't have to steal to get what I need. If You had made me smarter, then I wouldn't have had to look at somebody else's paper during exams. If You had given me the breaks in life — like most everyone else — I wouldn't have had to kick and scratch for what little I have.

If I didn't know better, I would swear that Isaiah is talking about the good old days. I hear that phrase all the time! That's when everything was baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet. Everything was simple and easy: knickers, one-room school houses, Democrats and Will Rogers. Yeah! Back to a time when it was easy to believe and know what belonged to God and what belonged to us folks.

God, we need a miracle, no, a dozen miracles. Tear open the heavens, reach down with Your hand, let us see at least a tiny part of You, shake the mountains, anything! But You've been quiet for a long time. Maybe the "God is dead" theologians are right. Just do something!

(I hear so many arguments lately when people are sitting around, drinking coffee, dunking a donut.) "Where's God been when the hurricanes came through and destroyed our stuff and the insurance companies denied our claims? Where was He yesterday. Where is He today?

What Isaiah has done — in legalistic fashion — is to put God on the witness stand so the complainant has the first word, "God, I am quite helpless. After all, You made me like a clay pot. You took my clay, You molded me. Who's to blame?"

God answers the charges, "I have always been here. I am always ready to be sought by those who don't even ask for Me. I am ready to be found by those who weren't even looking. I said, 'Here I am. Here I am.'

And what was their reply?

"Don't bother me, I don't need You just yet."

If we are not getting hit right in the chops with this, then we are missing one of the greatest lessons that the prophet can teach.

I am a great believer in history and am absolutely convinced that because we are unwilling to study, cherish and remember the teaching past, we are — and will be — doomed to inherit a very dark and tragic future. As a country, we had best believe that those who hate us and study history like a professor, will take advantage of the past and nail us to the walls!

While God may allow us complete freedom to be idiots — put in your own descriptive words — God has always been saying, in Jesus Christ to make the final point, "Here I am!"

If we will just listen and then ask, He will give us what we need. 

There are no free rides in this world. We could have been born white, black, yellow, brown or red. We could have been poor, rich, abused, loved, healthy or deformed. 

We are as we are and this may be as great a mystery as the length and width of our universe.

This is a portion of the prophecy of Isaiah. The answer is here. The sign has come. The direction has been given. The rest is up to us.

Thanks, God!