I can just imagine Moses leaving the desert of Midian headed back to Egypt. He was probably thinking "This is great, it's about time." Except he wasn't. God had grown him from the impatient man who killed an Egyptian to be the humble patient man who would spend so much time with God over the next forty years as he led the Israelites out of Egypt and toward the promised land.

Mike Pilavachi, in his book Soul Survivor makes this comment:

"Not very much grows on the mountaintops. Instead, things grow in the valleys. It is in the valley that we find life. To often we miss God's blessing because we stay on the mountain when the will of the Father is that we descend into the valley. We attempt to cling to the spiritual experiences, and as a result, the blessing becomes an idol. (p 64-65).

That observation could not be more true, or profound. We've spent much of the past five months feeling in the valley, as we waited for the clearance, after the offer was accepted. There were times that the clearance became an idol. There were definitely times that it felt like I wanted it more than I wanted God. It dominated my thoughts and affected my moods etc.

However that time down in the valley has made all the difference. I have watched God provide time after time, both with making ends meet, as well as watching my kids grow and develop and watch our family grow closer. I'm not sure that had the offer been accepted with a start date soon after would our family be where we are today.

While working at my current job, I have even seen my confidence in the workplace grow. I have handled multiple big projects and have even been implementation lead on others. I no longer fear the project I know nothing about, but embrace the research.

Well today at 4:59pm as I was running some Windows Updates on a server in Cleveland, I saw my phone light up, with a number that looked vaguely familiar. Here was the transcript of the voicemail that was left:

Hi, This message is for Matt Horvat, this is [Name Redacted] calling from the Bettis Laboratory calling to let you know that your clearance has been granted and I'd like to establish a start date with you if if you could please give me a call at [Number Redacted as well]. I would appreciate it. Thank you. Bye bye.

So I finish up my work day, and call the number back, darn voicemail...so I leave a message and start my drive home. A couple minutes later I felt a tug that I should call back, so I called back and my HR rep answered on the first ring, and I picked a start date November 7th.

Two hundred and twenty four days from the date of the interview, the time to leave the valley will come, and I will finally accomplish my dream of being a professional developer.

It's been a crazy journey, but one that was necessary and worthwhile...now time to just enter the exit lane for the last exit from Midian....