This year is testing the endurance of nearly everyone in the U.S. and around much of the world. It’s still too soon to tell how the co-occurring crises in the Ukraine and Gaza will turn out, as well as how challenges to democracy in the U.S. and elsewhere, uncertainty due to climate change, and more, will pan out.

However, it’s never too soon to implement basic principles to guide us through tumultuous times. Fundamental principles that fortify our navigation through uncharted territory, if we integrate them into daily living, include: finding hope, relying on faith, and perfecting charity.

Finding hope is a good place to start, even though hope is difficult to explain.  Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary defines hope as to believe or trust.

A 75-year-old former farmer and I confer on the phone regularly. He demonstrates hope. “Pete” ceased farming and rented the farmland after he developed colorectal cancer three years ago.

Following surgery to remove cancerous tissue, Pete had to wear a colostomy bag.  His wife, “Linda,” provided most of his post-operative care at home and for his periodic infections at the stoma site.

Ten months ago, Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer. Pete blamed himself for her cancer.

“I was too much of a burden on Linda,” he said. Their doctors acknowledged that stress can compromise personal immune competency, but many other factors have a role in Linda’s cancer, such as her family history of proneness to breast cancer.

Doctors also pointed to exposures to the farm chemicals that Pete had applied to his crops, and unknown factors.

Pete’s self-blame worsened to the point that he thought his wife and their children would be better off if he ended his life. He liked to say, only half-jokingly, “I’m the pain in the ass that caused our health problems.”

Pete added, “Although I felt like ending it all at times, I realized that suicide would be selfish. Linda helped me figure that out.”

He explained that Linda reminded him what they had learned in their Sunday religion classes decades ago: “God will never forget you and will hold you in His hands.” Pete and Linda have been members of the same Lutheran church all their lives.

Pete explained further, “I knew there was a purpose for me. I didn’t know what it was. Now I know my family wants me to hang-in-there because they love me and are counting on my advice.”

We often learn hope best when we are bottoming out. When we realize there is nothing to depend on except beliefs in a higher purpose, we rely on faith. We learn charity by caring for others.

When we surrender self-importance and honestly admit, “Okay, God, what do You want from me?,” we acquire hope. Personal peace signals when hope follows, and it may not be immediately.

When personal peace doesn’t follow immediately, more personal struggles occur. The more we ignore cues about accepting whatever the Higher Power over our lives offers, the more likely we are to experience further personal agitation until we ask for God’s help.

Pete and Linda found their faith anew when they implemented, “Not my will, but Thine,” as a higher purpose than for themselves. They determined to have family meetings to figure out the future of their farm.

When none of their children wanted to farm, they determined to donate their farm to a cause everyone supported: a non-profit trust operated by the Lutheran Church that will own the farm after Pete and Linda pass and use the income for worthy purposes.

Several practical suggestions for learning more about the fundamental principles of hope, faith and charity include the following:

- Humility is to accept with grace what we don’t want to face

- We should thank the people whom we assist, for they are our best teachers of lessons about hope, faith and charity

- Look out for others as well as ourselves by sharing our goods, skills, and checking on their welfare

- Open ourselves to alternative thinking, especially by asking for thoughts from persons with differing points of view, and sort out what we feel is right

- Recognize that we can learn the most from challenges we would prefer to avoid

- Laughing at ourselves when we make mistakes, and accomplishments, is fun for everyone; humor calms us and can change our outlooks and the outlooks of others

- Most religions offer useful guidelines, but not guarantees, for acquiring hope, faith, and ability to implement charity; choosing the directions our lives take is a personal choice

- Personal spirituality through prayer is essential to move us in positive directions

- Honesty is a requirement for hope, faith and charity

I laughed when I realized what the children’s television character, Kermit the Frog, meant when he said, “It’s not easy being green.”  He meant, “It’s not easy being me.”

All of us are works in progress who need hope, faith and charity.

Dr. Mike is a psychologist/farmer who lives at Pella, Iowa. Contact him at: mike@agbehavioralhealth.com.