Being a disciple and obedience

I'm reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship again and every time I read his book, it gets me thinking. Some would say that's a good thing, some might say it's kind of scary, but here's what Bonhoeffer has me thinking about today.
I'm struck again by his emphasis on obedience as a key part of being a disciple of Jesus. In fact, without obedience to God, there is no faith. This is striking a chord in me. Granted, the institutional church has gotten a bad name because of its focus on rules over grace and on believing the right doctrine over right living together, yet obedience is still relevant and important.
I'm thinking about hockey and how, if you don't obey the rules the coach makes, you don't play, and if it goes on long enough, you get thrown off the team. This weekend in the NHL, a player has been suspended because he hasn't obeyed society's rules on how to treat a woman. He allegedly beat her and now is off the team for a time, and if found guilty, he's off the team for good and everyone says that's a good thing. But now if you relate this to faith and following Jesus, people want to keep their options open. They want quick forgiveness with little or no consequences when they don't obey God; after-all, isn't God all about grace? It seems kind of odd to me that many people want sport organizations to have higher standards than the church or God, with the excuse that we need to show grace. Yet rebelling against God is a life or death act.
Can you be a real follower of Jesus without radically obeying his teachings? I guess you can if you accept him only as teacher, but can you not do everything you can to obey and follow Jesus' teachings if you accept him as God?
One last thought, Bonhoeffer asks whether you try to get around Jesus' teachings by spiritualizing them or turning them into metaphors so you can say you are obedient without really obeying? God created us with imaginations, and I'm often amazed at how we use our imaginations to get around God's call on our lives instead of using them to discover even more ways to obey him. Don't get me wrong, I believe in grace; in deep radical grace, and I need this grace more than anyone, but I wonder if we understand what this grace is really all about and how much it cost God? I wonder if we've read so much of the forgiveness and grace passages without reading the passages about the extreme life Jesus calls us to when he says, "Come, follow me."
How would your life be different if you really obeyed Jesus? I've got a long ways to go still; are you willing to join me in this journey? We do this better together!