1. If Jesus were easy to understand, he would not be worthy of our worship.
2. I want inexplicable peace and I want understanding of all suffering. This is at total odds with how it all works according Paul.
3. Television is a killer. Not just because of the immorality but because of its insipid messages that steal wonder, ignore beauty, and trade in envy.
4. If you read the stories of Jesus, you will see the answers he gave were never what was expected by the questioner/requester. They were always unexpected and often challenging. But in our day and age, we have so “formulized” discipleship, if we don’t get the answer/response we want, then we assume it cannot be right. The formulas have trained us in predictable expectations.
5. I have had more meaningful conversations with my kids this summer about Jesus and his work, than maybe in all the years previous. Sometimes it felt urgent. Sometimes I felt desperate. But mostly I didn’t feel alone. They were worked out by Someone else while almost always spontaneous for our part.
6. I don’t want to be more uptight than Jesus.
7. Discipleship in the American church looks little like the discipleship in the NT. American discipleship is marked by American business principles: efficiency, ease of use, PR, marketing, celebrity, supply/demand, and utility over beauty. Whereas the NT looks nothing like American business.
8. I am 46 years old and still only now feel as if I am grabbing hold of some understanding that was out of reach for a long time.
9. Rest for the weary.
10. The good news and the bad news, both make me wanna go home.
Echoes and Stars 
Tracking on all these today (well, not #8, that shipped sailed along time ago!)…but what does discipleship look like for you in the 21st century? I agree that the church programs are just like the world of advertising-come to our church, we have better programs, pastors, etc…to your point in #3. Church can be a killer. Which is why we had to leave the evangelical world.
I’m not sure “what does it look like?” is the right question or a sufficient one. But I think it is long, consistent, inefficient, and cannot be easily measured.
I really love reading your posts. #10—yes, yes, yes. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. PS, reading Andrew Peterson because of you. Many thanks!!
Thanks for this Matt. I once was required to read a book on discipleship for a men’s group (What. A. Shock.), and the book was written by…wait for it…a business man.
Wanted to gag most of the way through the book.