Posted on: 14th April 2025

Recently, I have spent some time with the Lighthouse community, meeting people who are pushed to the margins of society in Leeds, facing major challenges of all types. Who have struggled to find acceptance and belonging in mainstream society and within the church. On both occasions, they have used a song which I have known for years. I have lost count of the number of times I have played and sung Don Moen’s Give Thanks with a grateful heart. It is one of those pieces I can play without the music, and I don’t need to think about the lyrics. But hearing it sung by the Lighthouse community has brought it to life in a new way.

And now let the weak say I am strong
Let the poor say I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us

Hearing these words, sung by people who have experienced poverty and weakness in a way that I never have, who have discovered a reason to give thanks to God, is deeply humbling. Hearing the passion in their voices as they sing these lines contrasts with the way in which I have often heard it sung, and yet my conversations with people in the Lighthouse community have also reminded me of what those words mean. It doesn’t matter how strong I am, or how rich I am, but how I use what strength, power and resources I have is important. Do I use them for my own gain or to help others? According to the wisdom of the world I should look after myself first, but that is not God’s wisdom. In my encounters at Lighthouse, I have met people who have little to give in terms of money, but who have given their time and energy, supporting each other. To the world it looks like foolishness, but the weakness and foolishness of God is stronger and wiser than all the strength and wisdom of humankind.

(25) For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. (26) Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. (27) But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; (28) God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are, (29) so that no one might boast in the presence of God.
1 Corinthians 1: 25-29

This year my work at Leeds Church Institute is focussed on the role of the church in tackling poverty and injustice. Are we called to be Prophet or Provider. For many churches this is a question with no easy answer, especially when we rely on human wisdom. But I wonder what our answer might be if we dare to act from the foolishness of God.

By Paul Coleman, Leeds Church Institute