Imagine working on a project for decades only to see it voted down by a show of hands.

This week, after twenty years and fifty-five million dollars, the City of Newport News, VA decided to terminate the 13 billion gallon King William Reservoir project.

The Cohoke Mill Creek will not be dammed.

I am sure that this is a real bummer for the engineers, scientists and tractor drivers involved. Nobody likes to be put out of business by the desalinization plant down the block. It is hard to watch twenty years of work float off down the river. In just two more years it would have been completed.

Hashem taught Yona that the anger of the Army Corp of Engineers is legitimate. Yona was deeply upset because he lost a Kikayon tree that had sprouted over night and Hashem was not willing to see the great (and evil) city of Nineveh destroyed.

Hashem puts a lot into each one of us. It is fair and non-heretical to say that it is within Hashem’s best interest to see us succeed. He creates us to see us thrive. Hashem created a system of rules and rewards, but the ultimate goal is our spiritual success. It’s not over until we win.

Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz used to tell his discouraged students: “Never start again”! Often a person begins a tractate of Gemara or a project and loses interest for a few days. If he is constantly starting again from the beginning he will eventually find himself too discouraged to carry on.

We need to build on our small successes and move forward. Step by step we will prevail, because Hashem wants us to succeed.

Hashem might not bring storms and large fish and prophets together to help us succeed, but he did design the world around us with our best interests in mind. We are built to last.

As for the reservoir, it was just a blip on the landscape of 5770 years of history. The Mattoponi River will continue to flood its banks for many happy and healthy years to come, 430 acres of wetlands will not be destroyed and everyone will still have plenty of water to drink.

Nature found its way and so can we.

Disclaimer: I am not an environmentalist or politician. I actually know very little about rivers, reservoirs, dams, and wetlands. The point is that it (the reservoir) was a big project which was canceled in favor of an even bigger project (nature). Our Neshamos are Hashem’s biggest project.