Education is Mandatory...and other iterations

I know that I am very late writing about the Mark Twain quote last week, but I was on holiday. But it is one of my favorite quotes, so I am going to have a go at it. Bear with me. I'll tell you about the holiday in my next posts. I promise.

Don't let schooling get in the way of your education.
Mark Twain

The theme behind home education in the UK is based on the philosophy "Education is mandatory, school is optional." I always think of the Mark Twain quote when I see those words. And it fits my philopsophy of education, so of course I am going to write about education. Right? Wrong. I've thought about these words alot over the last week and think that maybe we miss the bigger picture on a lot of issues that we choose to become dogmatic or legalistic.

I've had lots of things go through my head this week.
* Discipleship is mandatory, program ~x~ is optional
* Evangelism is mandatory, tract ~y~ is optional
* Mission work is mandatory; foreign/domestic/your own home is optional
But the one I keep hearing the refrain of is: "Worship is mandatory, church is optional" or in the phrasology of Mark Twain: "Don't let your church attendance get in the way of your worship."

Now before everyone writes me off as a heretical nutcase, don't hear me wrong. I think that church attendance is important, but should not get in the way of the bigger picture. Let me give an example from my recent holiday. We were traveling from Munich to Garmisch on Sunday. The plan was to arrive in Garmisch for the eleven a.m. English speaking worship service. It took longer to get across Munich than we had planned. Then there was road construction and lots of traffic at times. Despite my husband's best efforts (this story to come) it became apparent that we were not going to make it in time to even slip in the back late.

So, we did the next best thing. We popped in a CD of an Alexandria (IN) choir singing the musical "Send It On Down." We pulled into the Alps blasting praise music of the Holy Spirit coming to us and us going to heaven. It was amazing. I don't think the CD has ever sounded so good. We had an amazing time of worship, without ever getting out of our car. Would the church service have been good--absolutely. But it was not necessary to worship. Worship happend because we chose to worship not because of our location.

May I remember to not let legalistic bounds get in the way of the bigger picture of what God wants to do in my life.