Religion is for good people.
It has one central characteristic – to give you a bunch of laws to make your life work and to gain approval from its god. And the burden is on you. You have make it work. It’s your discipline and commitment that makes it or breaks it for you.
For example, meditation just doesn’t float down like a cloud and take you by the hand to your happy place. You have to work it. You have to set aside the time, roll out the mat, sit Buddha-style, inhale and exhale, clear your mind, breathe in, breathe out, and keep your back straight. After twenty minutes you get up, roll up the mat, tuck it under your arm and now you’re ready to check that off your list for the day.
On the other hand, Christianity is for bad people. That’s me. I have the mat, the exercise ball, and the twister thing, all with a heavy layer of dust on them in the corner of the room. I’ve walked away from many schools of discipline. I’m sure they would have worked had I been more consistent. But consistency eludes me, along with daily bible reading, prayer, and keeping my eyes glued to Jesus every day.
I can’t do it. 
The slightest distraction draws me away from him. The weather. My spiritual temperature. The latest conflict with my husband. The boring aspects of my job. Those capture my heart faster than everything Jesus has done for me.
I tell others to be aware of looking inward because there’s nothing good there. Just sin and failure. That joy in life is found in keeping a closeness with Jesus. Except I don’t do it.
That’s why I’m a bad people. Even on my best days, my life is shot full of sin. That’s why Christianity is my kind of religion. It tells me I am bad, that I have no hope, and that I am lost and without God in the world. Sounds very orphan-like to me. No Father is heaven looking after me. No church to nurture and raise me. No brothers and sisters to live with. That’s as bad as it gets.
That’s why I need Christianity. That’s where I discover Jesus. He came to rescue me because I was that bad. He merited righteousness through his perfect obedience, and paid the price for my sins through his death on the cross. And both are credited to me through faith in him alone.
That’s it. It’s that simple, and yet it cost Jesus everything. My job? To believe him. If he said he did this, then you can trust him.
Which would you rather do? Believe in Jesus or roll out that dusty exercise ball?
Talk to me.
Messy Christians 
I choose Jesus. His perfect righteousness covers us, if we will just believe.
No matter how zealous we are, and how many works of mercy we may do on His behalf, we will still stand before Him one day needing his acknowledgement and mercy.
As the Bible tells us, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” (Isaiah 64:6).
Thank God He covers us with His sacrifice and His blood, so we can call upon the Father in His name whenever we need the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13).
Love in Christ,
Naomi
You’re so right, Naomi. His covering is our only hope, now in this life and in the life to come. Thanks for your marvelous comments.
As far as salvation is concerned, I can identify with the general thesis of your post. With regards to sanctification, however, The root of discipleship is discipline. Christ worked at it. The disciples worked at it. And as for Paul, he instructed us in it. It’s not hard to find Christians nowadays without any sense lordship, or mission. One might call them “comfortable Christians.
I agree, we are called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, but it is God who prompts us in that direction, otherwise we wouldn’t be motivated. I keep reminding myself that the gospel is for Christians, too. Thank you for your marvelous comment.