“Even if I knew for sure that the world would come to an end tomorrow, I still would plant a small apple tree today.”– Martin Luther, 1483-1546

These difficult times might remind us of Hamlet’s famous quote: “The time is out of joint.” In fact, the world seems to be out of joint as well. It reminds me of the time in the late 1980s.

In 1988 my freshly wed bride and I had a visitor from the US and we decided to drive to Berlin. Germany was still divided into West Germany and communist East Germany, similar to South and North Korea today. There were three so-called transit ways to West Berlin from West Germany, however, when West Germans used them, they were often harassed by the East German border control.

When we came to the inner German border, there were about six or seven long lines of cars piled up (Americans, French and British had a special fast lane because of their special status in Berlin). Our line moved forward slowly.

After 30 minutes of stop and go, the car in front of me left the control area and I immediately pulled forward to the stop line next to the patrol booth, only to be told by the East German guard to move back behind the last line, saying: “Did I wave you to come forward?” All the 20 or 30 cars in the line had to back up because of me. The manoeuvre took about another ten minutes.

No sooner was I back behind the line, he waved me forward. Typical harassment. When I handed him the passports, including the British Bermuda passport of my bride and the US passport of our visitor, he almost fainted and apologised profoundly. As I said before, British and Americans had special rights.

Nothing lasts for ever

Once in West Berlin we also visited East Berlin, seeing empty shelves in shops, buildings facades still damaged from the Second World War and roads that make our potholes look like nothing.

I cannot even imagine how stressful life must have been for East Germans in those years, including the constant spying by the Stasi, East Germany’s secret “state security” police. It was good for my bride to experience the reality of this time.

After 39 years of division, the divided Germany was in a hopeless situation and nobody expected at that point that history would change to the better any time soon.

About six months later, in October 1989 Gorbachev came to Berlin for the 40th anniversary of East Germany. He famously said to the East German dictator Erich Honecker: “Those who are late are punished by life.”

The USSR was dissolving itself soon after, its allies became one after the other free countries. In East Germany the people had protested peacefully already for weeks every Monday with candles and although mainly atheists, they came together to so called “prayer meetings” in churches.

Thousands had used Czechoslovakia and other former eastern block countries in summer 1989 to flee to the west. Still the East German regime seemed unmoved.

However, just four weeks later the horror of 40 years came to a sudden end in November 1989, without a single shot fired, the border was opened and another year later, Germany was reunited.

Keep on keeping on

I am telling this story, as even seemingly hopeless situations can change. Keep on keeping on. Or as Winston Churchill said: “Never give in – never, never, never. In nothing, great of small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.”

How to respond in a fresh and new way?

However, to find the appropriate response in the daily stress situations of today’s world are not easy. What can we do when things happen beyond our control, when our future is at jeopardy, our life plans are destroyed or we have to face a major loss.

Anger (fight), anxiety (flight) or numbness (freeze), nature’s standard responses to stress make little sense in our modern world. Fighting does not solve the problems especially as those responsible are usually not around anyway. It is unfair to let our anger out on others who are actually not to blame. Running away from our problems usually does not help either. Sure, we can numb ourselves with drugs or alcohol, but truly, it destroys us more than it helps.

We can ease effects of stress

There are some very helpful techniques we can learn, from simple breathing exercises, which help to reduce the stress hormone levels, calming self talk (the limbic system responsible for stress reactions has about the intellect of a three-year-old toddler, and calming talk can actually help. Try this: “thank you for warning me, but I got this. It is not that bad. There is no real danger here.”).

What also may help is listening to relaxing music, or paying attention to the good in our lives. We can choose the practice of daily gratitude. According to modern psychology it has an incredible effect on our wellbeing and stress reduction.

In Philippians 4:6 (NIV), the apostle Paul advises believers: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

Finding hope in faith

We need sources of genuine hope. Many people of faith have found being grounded in the word of God’s promises and the Bible can be so helpful and encouraging throughout the journey of life. When we have this genuine trust that God is still in control and actually loves us, we can look at afflictions in a different way.

The apostle Paul writes in Romans 5:1-5, (NRSV): “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.

“And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

Early Christians lived by hope

First Paul reminds the Christians in Rome of the basics of the new faith. The antique Rome was a place where it wasn’t easy to be a Christian, where persecution was everywhere and many believers had been killed as martyrs already when Paul wrote this. Surely for the church in Rome the time was out of joint and the affliction was even more direct then for most of us.

However, one thing was sure to them: with God they had peace in spite of turmoil and confusion. While the emperor and his administration, his guards and squealers may have intimidated and harassed the people, Christians believed and experienced God’s help and steadfastness.

They were justified even though they were not perfect, it wasn’t only a promise for the “super Christians”, but just by trusting that God was on their side, trusting that God who created them, the earth, and the universe offered grace to them in Jesus Christ. In that they found hope, hope beyond measure.

Injustice will never prevail for long. Because of this hope and faith, they could agree that affliction actually produces endurance, character, and hope.

Faith is defiant

In a way, true faith is defiant. It does not give in, never, never, never, except to convictions of honour and good sense. It is the defiance of the one who knows what is right, the one who is justified.

It is the defiance that produces resilience. Yes, we need this resilience today as well. It builds hope, it helps us to plant this little apple tree, even if the time seems out of joint. Hope does not put us to shame.

• Karsten Decker is a German theologian with a double degree equivalent to an MTheol and MDiv. He studied in Marburg (Germany), Knoxville (USA), and Toronto (Canada) and comes from a united church of Lutheran and Reformed Churches. He was the pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Bermuda from 2010 to 2017, and after returning from Germany is now the temporary pulpit supply at Centenary United Methodist Church in Smith’s