Swallowed Up in the Belly of the Whale- Mike Simonich

"But the Lord provided a very large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights" Jonah 2.17

     Over the past few days Mr. Kane has been giving us a bit of wisdom at reflection time, his most prevalent of which, was that we are here, in New Orleans, not to do what we want to do, not to get sucked up into the depths of tourist traps and sightseeing and all the materialistic bits of traveling, but to work for others. But there is a certain depth that comes with this work, we should not be working based on being with friends and because a job site is "more fun" than another, but because we came here to do the work that we were called upon to do, do it with an open mind and an open heart, and to do it without hesitation or question and no more than that.
     This particularly resonated with me because over the past few days, for a little bit before I go to bed, I have been reading Moby Dick. Of course a book about whales would have a chapter about Jonah, but I happened to read it at just the perfect time. For those of you who don't know Jonah was one of God's bespoken prophets, and while he without hesitation preached the good word to cities he liked that resonated with his message, he was asked to go to a city called Nineveh, whom he felt deserved to be struck down by God. So instead of doing the job he was told to do he fled from the Lord and got onto a boat where he felt the Lord could not reach, however, things didn't quite work out and Jonah was punished and swallowed up into the belly of a great Leviathan.
     This quote particularly stuck with me because I know very well how easy it is to be nice and kind to those who we feel deserve it, many times in a persons life will they go and do remarkable deeds for the fortunate and while that is not to people shouldn't help, its to say they are overlooking a whole different population. True compassion comes from helping the condemned, the outcasts, sinners and overlooked. You do not run away from something or someone because you feel they do not deserve the same love and compassion that is shown to us each and every day, because there are many, many people who may not see any. Every man, woman, child, human has a story, maybe the cover to that story is tattered and ragged, it still deserves to be read just as much as the brand new glistening book. This just really gave me a good perspective for the week and the rest of my time, I am not going to judge a job and scoff at it and look for the easy way out, I'm going to do my very best and then some, and when I finish go and ask for more because at the end of the day, it quite honestly is the least I could do for anyone.