One of the great things about riding a motorcycle is…riding the motorcycle!!! Sometimes it is not enough just to go for a ride so I have started putting together “devo rides” where at one point we stop and do a short devotion that is tied into our ride destination.
Earlier this month my ride group rode to the to the Texas ghost town of Helena, about 70 miles south of San Antonio. Over 120 years ago at Helena’s prim the city had a courthouse, a jail, a church building that housed three different congregations, a Masonic Lodge, drugstore, blacksmith shop, two hotels, a general store, up to 13 saloons, a school (the Helena Academy), a coeducational college and two newspapers. The town had a population of about 300 and was on a major trade route from the coast to San Antonio. Helena's future looked bright.
But Helena was also a lawless western town right out of a Hollywood movie script. How rough was it? Many people just referred to it by the first syllable of its name…”Hell”. It was the birthplace of the “Helena Duel" in which the left hands of two opponents were tied together and each fighter was given a knife with a three-inch blade. After the combatants were spun around a few times, they slashed away at each other until one bled to death from the accumulation of cuts and stabs. Robberies and shootings were common.
Something had to give, and the beginning of the end for this once a thriving boom town came the day after Christmas 1884 when Emmett Butler, the son of prominent rancher and Civil War Veteran Colonel William G. Butler, was shot and killed.
There are many versions of what happened to Emmett that evening in Helena. They range from kissing the wrong girl (ah-la Kevin Cosner in Silverado) to shooting the sheriff. One version was even portrayed on the popular TV show Death Valley Days. All versions of the story end the same. Emmett is shot and killed while fleeing town, then the next day his father, Colonel Butler, rides into town with his brothers and cowhands demanding to know who killed his son. When no one would, or could tell him he supposedly shouted the famous phrase “This town killed my son, now I’m going to kill this town”. What there is no doubt about is that soon after the killing of his son, Colonel Butler gave the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway free right-of-way through the family ranch to by-pass Helena, and in the late 1800’s being bypassed by the rail road was the kiss of death for a town. Within ten years of Emmitt’s death the county seat and most businesses had left Helena and moved to towns on the new rail line.
Our ride took us to the Helena town site that today consist of the old court house and post office, now museums, and several historical markers. I did a short devotional on generational sin, focusing not only that which led to the death of Helena, but also the generational sin of the Butler family and some of its history which I know well. Colonel Butler’s father was my great, great, great grandfather. My great, great grandfather was Pleasant Burnel Butler who was Colonel William Butler’s younger brother and one of the men who road into Helena to find out who killed Emmitt. Today we still have a tract of land on our ranch that is still owned by the rail road where the orgional line came through.
While we are influenced by our family and it’s history we are not bound by it. Ezekiel 18:30 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct," declares the Lord GOD. “Repent and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you.” (NAS)
We have the power, through Christ, to break the generational curse; we do not have to repeat the sins of our family. So what generational sins do you need to overcome, and what sin do you need to take to the Cross and ask for forgiveness so that it does not become a stumbling block for your family. Maybe you have grown kids, what have you passed on to them that you need to go to them and ask forgiveness to help them not pass it on to the 3rd and 4th generation.
It was a great ride, with some great guys and I am looking forward to the next one.
