It has been tough for me; I have no doubt it’s tough for a lot of others.
Perhaps the hardest thing for a believer from a western background is to embrace the primacy of peace with God over everything else mentioned in Scripture. It is the ultimate prize. It’s the one thing you can obtain in this life that you can take with you when you leave this life. Thus, it’s only natural you should realize that if you have nothing else in this life, shalom is more than enough by itself.
This is why we can put up with misfortune and testing. This is how we can watch sinners prosper materially, because we know they are going to Hell. Not with a sneer, but with tears of joy we realize they don’t know what they are missing.
Why did God send the Patriarchs into Egypt? Because the alternative was even worse. Why did He let them endure slavery? It guaranteed they would be dependent on Him alone. It was in their best interest. Why did they endure the harsh testing of slavery? Because it was critical that He should humble Egypt and elevate His chosen nation by His hand alone, not by any deeds they might do. Why did He force them to wander in the Wilderness? Because the generation of the Exodus was too whiny and unable to conquer Palestine. It took a fresh generation to be ready for the battles.
All of the things He did for them by His own hand — they kept rejecting His peace in favor of a bowl of pottage. They took after Esau, who was rejected. Recount the Wilderness Temptations Jesus faced with the Devil. Those were things the people of Israel kept chasing, not peace with God. All the wanted was pampering: bread in the wilderness, miraculous powers to wow everyone, and political rule over the human race. They expected God to exempt them from the consequences of the Fall. They didn’t want peace with God, but demanded He give those worldly symbols as the price of their cooperation. Those things the Devil offered? Biblical scholarship knows them as the False Messianic Expectations.
But because of their rejection of shalom, it is now offered to us on very generous terms. Just submit to Jesus as your feudal master. Granted, that Covenant often does bring some measure of material prosperity, some authority to keep away threats, and a bit of leverage with people outside the Covenant. But the primary focus is not that stuff, but peace with God. That’s the one thing no human agency can give or take away from us.
Don’t resent what others have. Pity them when they don’t have shalom.
Reminds me of the C.S. Lewis quote, from The Weight of Glory. He sounds a little like Chesterton here:
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”