By: Carol Goldsmith, The Discovery Coach
Helping You Discover How To Be Your Best

My Jewish client Jillian loves Joel Osteen, a telegenic Christian minister-cum-motivational speaker whose sermons reach millions of TV viewers each week. Fellow synagogue members wonder why Jillian faithfully tunes into his telechurch. "Because he makes sense," she answers. "His message isn't so much about religion as it is about how we all can live our best lives."

Being a non-denominational spiritual-seeker, I picked up a copy of Joel's bestseller, Your Best Life Now. One story spoke of the search for the Promised Land by Terah, the father of Abraham. Although Terah had a mind for milk and honey, he stopped short of Canaan and decided to settle in Haran instead (Genesis 11:31). Joel pondered the possible reasons for this.

"No doubt it was difficult traveling with his flock, herds, family members, and all of their possessions, " Joel wrote. "You can imagine how stressful that was, not to mention what a headache moving must have been four thousand years ago."

Finally Terah had had enough, "'I can't go any father. I know this isn't the Promised Land, but let's just settle here; it's good enough.'"

Joel added, "I wonder how many times we do the same thing."

I'd been wondering that very thing the night before, while watching a modern American play called On The Verge. In it, three Victorian women hike up their hoop skirts and plunge into the jungles of Terra Incognita in search of promised adventure. They find it. Terra Incognita, as they gradually discover, lay at the latitude-longitude lines where present and future intersect. The farther forward they venture, the more strange words pop into the women's heads: Rock 'n roll. Ovaltine. Jacuzzi. Cool Whip. Hoola-hoop. I like Ike.

It seems they've landed in 1955 (coincidentally, the year when I landed, too).

Two of the Victorians become so enamored of the Eisenhower era that they trade in their corsets for white Capri pants. The third explorer decides to journey on, bypassing Ozzie and Harriet land for the promise of a still better life.

I wondered how many of us would do the same thing.

Are you accepting less than you could do, have, or be? Have you stopped short of your Promised Land, settling instead for just good enough? According to the book of Joel, the God of both the Old and New Testaments wants us to constantly stretch and grow, to explore territories just over the horizon in search of our best possible life.

Both does that mean we should feel dissatisfied now?

I think there's a land that lies just in between, a place where we can feel at home now while stretching ourselves to do, have, and be more. I wonder if the Promised Land is right underfoot. Could it be that we're meant to live on the verge?

(c) Copyright 2006, Carol Goldsmith, The Discovery Coach

To purchase The book of carols: Songs of discovery on the path to enlightenment, visit www.carolgoldsmith.com and click on the book cover, or call Infinity Publishing at 1-877-BUY-BOOK.

To request a complimentary coaching session, email carol@carolgoldsmith.com or call 703-860-6178.