For me, and for a lot of the Christian college students I’ve gotten to know over the years, the constant pressure to love God and to be a certain way for God leads you to judge yourself a spiritual failure. It’s never God’s fault that you don’t feel close. Preachers will say ‘God is always reaching out to you. If God seems distant, it’s you, not God, who moved away.’ You feel like it’s your fault.

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