By July of 1940, Hitler launched “operation sea lion”. Britain was standing alone. The British leaders wanted to protect the island by firing artillery canons into the sea. Only the older British artillery veterans from WW I were available. The elderly British militia were now using truck mounted artillery, but they were used to the horse drawn artillery from World War I. When it came time to discharge the truck mounted artillery, they pulled the firing trigger and stepped back holding their hand outward! Why? They had needed to steady horses in World War I and were still trying do so. They were trying to hold on to invisible horses.   Moral: Holding on to these imaginary horses was simply an obsolete, outdated habit. We too, often hold on to the past, even when it is detrimental or harmful to do so.   Allow me to draw an analogy from this historical episode of WW II. An invisible horse is an outdated, harmful sin or habit that wastes our time, our energy, and can even erode our hope for the future. As Christians, our ongoing goal in life… should be to “shoot” our own invisible horses.

Greg Thomas

United Church of God Pastor

Greg Thomas is the part-time Pastor of the Cleveland, Ohio congregation. Ordained in 1981, he has served in the ministry for 43-years and assumed the role of Pastor in January 2011. As a certified leadership consultant, Greg is the founder and president of weLEAD, Inc. Chartered in 2001, weLEAD is a 501(3)(c) non-profit organization and a major respected resource for free leadership development information reaching a worldwide audience. Greg also founded Leadership Excellence, Ltd in 2009 offering leadership training and coaching.