Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

Where Are You Hiding Your Valuables?

September 3, 2026

Matthew 6:19 tells us not to store our treasures here, but to put them in Heaven. How much do you have in your 401 (k)? Did I just say that? My treasures are not to be bankable. As that famous philosopher, The Gambler, said, “Never count your money when you’re sitting at the table. There’ll be time enough for counting when the dealing’s done.”

We need to ask, “What is valuable to you?” I am not thinking of what is usually thought of as valuable. As I answer this question for myself, I encourage you to make your own list. First on my list is my family, and I believe the best way to protect them is by leading them in their faith in Jesus.

The same idea goes for my friends, and most of them are in the group that is in the third place: people I love. The problem is that Jesus said that we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Then He went on to tell a story that most of us have heard of that explains who our neighbor should be. (Luke 10:25-37)

Have you heard of the Good Samaritan? Samaritans were hated by the Jews. They were half-breeds. They were from different countries and nationalities. Do any of these descriptions fit those that you do not like? As Christians, we are told to love as Jesus did. For many of us, we do not even know what love is.

It is not liking someone a lot or something that the other person must earn or deserve. Love is what nailed God to a cross to save us from our rebellion. Love is giving yourself for others. It is what the Samaritan did for the injured Jew. He did what was needed despite who they were.

We should value all our relationships whether they are personal, business, or family. Jehovah created this universe so that He could create us to be in relationship with Him. Many wonder why a perfect deity would want to create such an imperfect world with sinful creatures such as humanity.

After we fouled this planet up, Jesus came to die for us. He took three years as an itinerant teacher, re-educating all who would listen about how the Hebrews had corrupted the meaning of the law and prophets. This teaching is one of the valuables that are stored inside believers.

Another thing that is valuable to me is you. You are not just a reader. You are a human being that Jehovah loves. You are important to me because you are special to Him. We like to quote John 3:16: “For God loved the world so much that He sent His only Son so that anyone could be brought to repentance.”

This is how the apostle John interpreted what Jesus did. He did not understand that Jesus was the I Am and not another entity. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” Don’t ask me to explain that statement because all I know is that they are two parts of Yahweh, who is a triune being just as we are.

We are to hide these things that we cherish in the place where Yahweh resides outside of time and space. We call this place Heaven, and Jesus tells us that if we are one of His disciples and a follower, when our bodies fail us, he will come and get us so that we will reside with Him. I hope to see you there.

The better idea

September 1, 2026

Companies worldwide are looking for better ways to do things. Many innovations come about every year. Some work and some do not. The management problem is deciding which ideas to implement and which to let die without further consideration. As a leader, there are many factors that we consider before moving on to the proposed improvement.

Today we will look at one of the reasons new concepts are discarded without due thought. The source of the innovative idea is often the deciding factor for many of us. If it came from a knowledgeable employee with many years of experience or from a superior who can terminate us, this thought is considered. The one that got away is probably from a new hire, temporary employee, intern, or other low-level worker.

Some of the freshest and best ideas are proposed by those whose minds are not clouded with all the things that take up the time of upper management. Some companies have programs to reward employees or even customers with their ideas.

I took a product proposal to a purchasing agent when I was in outside sales. As I explained this new product and asked where it might be used, I was told to wait a few minutes for the maintenance foreman. When he arrived, I explained this item and saw a light spark in his eyes. We discussed prices and the various places it could be utilized.

He had an application, and he had been looking for a product that would solve a particular problem. I showed the P.A. a new item that he thought was what they were looking for. This is just one example of me making a sale because I had what the customer needed. Unlike advertising for most commodities, I did not have to create a need or desire.

To me, that was the best way to make sales. I never pushed products or services onto a client. My technique was to explain the benefits of items and ask if the product was something that could be of use to them.

My new district manager did not believe this was the best sales procedure. He thought I should push for a close on anything that we had available. I was able to turn our branch’s profit margin around in six months after three years of being in the red. When I saw that this new boss and I would not be able to agree, I found another position after twenty-five years with that company.

My new boss at the next company appreciated my ideas enough that I received a promotion after just three months on the job. I felt that this was my dream job. Sometimes the better idea that you need may be changing positions or companies to continue growth in your career.

Old?

August 27, 2026

Some of my friends and I have been discussing how we are getting older. Notice that I said “older” and not “old.” Old is a state of mind. I worked with young people for over twenty years when God chose to move me to senior adults while I was in my forties.

I did not feel equal to that task, just as I felt ill-prepared to become a minister as a college student. I decided to change schools and majors and still graduated in four years. That was over fifty years ago. I want to take this column in a different direction and speak of someone that you may think of as old.

Dolly Parton has gone to be with our Lord. Do you understand what that means? Her body is no longer alive; however, she is. She has graduated to a place beyond time and space, where the triune God resides.

Ms. Parton believed His Son when she read that He claimed, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except by Me.” (John 14:6) How do I know this? There are fruits of His Spirit that she possessed. Her declaration that He is her Lord and Savior is not the proof I present to you.

She exhibited love, which is the first fruit that Paul wrote about in Galatians 5:22-23. If you do not understand this word, Paul defines it for you in 1 Corinthians chapter thirteen, which is another letter he wrote to the churches of his time. Her song that she wrote and sang, “I’ll always love you,” is an expression of how she lived her whole life.

I am not a personal friend of Dolly and have never had the privilege of meeting her in this life. It would not surprise me if she were not singing a new song to her Lord that we will not hear until our bodies fail us as hers did and Jesus takes us as He did her.

I remember when I first saw her on the Porter Wagner show in 1967. This thirteen-year-old boy never knew that twenty-three-year-old woman would become the entertainer that we are missing today. Let’s get back to that list of the fruit of the Spirit Paul gave us. He completes the list with joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness. These are things we all strive for, and Dolly did as well.

We saw her joy in her music, her peace in the manner in which she addressed her fans as she knew her time here was drawing to a close. She could not name the date as none of us could, but she tried to prepare us for it. I am sure that those close to her saw her lose patience with them and others from time to time, or if not, I hope I learn that someday.

The kindness and goodness that she demonstrated through her life and philanthropic endeavors will continue as her legacy. And Jesus has recognized her faithfulness to Him, her family, friends, and fans by coming to receive her to Himself as He promised in John 14:3.

Welcome home, Ms. Dolly. Enjoy your coat of many colors that your Father made for you, and I am sure it was on your bed in the mansion that Jesus prepared for you and took you to.

Systemic racism

August 23, 2026

When this term began to flourish many years ago, I thought it was like the phrase youth in Asia from the 1970s. If you are not old enough to remember that decade, I will tell you a story. In history class, one day our teacher asked us to choose teams to debate a topic. I was a debater and was excited about the assignment.

My friend and I easily paired up with two other friends to oppose and choose our topic. We selected pornography and picked a court case about the book “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and discussed the idea of whether the book was pornographic or not. I have yet to read the book.

The humorous part was when the group that selected Youth in Asia began their debate, and it had nothing to do with Asia but was about people being allowed to commit suicide. One of the debaters stated that he thought the punishment for this should be the death penalty. That comment got him sent to the office.

For my younger readers, you can see that our generations are no smarter than yours. I had never heard of euthanasia at that time. If you do not understand a term, do some research or ask someone smarter than you. I could not find anyone who could define the term systemic racism for me. They knew racism; only how the term systemic applied confused them as well.

My research since that time has uncovered the true cause of this problem. It is not the systems in place but the individuals running the governments involved. I think the first I heard of this was in the case of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. While the officer who killed Mr. Brown was never charged or convicted of a crime, the city police department underwent many systemic upgrades due to the incident.

This type of event sparks changes all over our country. The most current ones involve U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers who have killed innocent people and claimed that they interfered in their investigations. These cases range from Maine, Texas, Virginia, and beyond. There have been problems in Greene County, Missouri, where I live, as well, with this department of the Federal Government.

The point I want to make is that no system is perfect when imperfect humans are responsible for enforcing the laws. Maybe we should eliminate the human element and assign these tasks to Artificial Intelligence? This is an oxymoron because while they may be artificial, they are not intelligent. They make mistakes as well.

You don’t believe me? Try these headlines for size: “Parents sue OpenAI for involvement in teenager’s suicide,” “xAI’s Grok makes antisemitic comments, lays out plan for assault,” “AI coding tool wipes out production database and lies about it.” That last one sounds all too human to me. Could it be that even something artificial designed by us will still have our flaws?

This is the main premise of my book “Cosmic Flatulence.” When we concoct a theory of the evolution of our world coming from nothing and no one, calling it the “Big Bang Theory,” isn’t that like saying God let a fart and all of this happened? I don’t have that much faith.

Social Insecurity

August 18, 2026

HISTORY LESSON ON YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY CARD:

Just in case some of you young whippersnappers (& some older ones) didn’t know this. It’s easy to check out, if you don’t believe me. Be sure and show it to your family and friends. They need a little history lesson on what’s what and it doesn’t matter whether you are Democrat or Republican. Facts are FACTS.

Up until the 1980’s, Social Security cards expressly stated the number and card were not to be used for identification purposes. Both my wife and I have these cards. My mother and father’s cards that I still possess show it as well. In college, my first student ID number was my SSI number.

Since nearly everyone in the United States now has a number, even our young children, it became convenient to use it anyway and the “NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION” message was removed. One promise is broken.

Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social Security (FICA) Program. These are the promises that he made, with updates in brackets.

Participation in the Program would be completely voluntary [No longer voluntary, another broken promise.],

The participants would only have to pay 1% of the first $1,400 of their annual income into the program [Now 7.65% on the first $90,000, and 15% on the first $90,000 if you’re self-employed. That’s three promises broken.],

The money the participants elected to put into the program would be deductible from their income for tax purposes each year [No longer tax deductible, a fourth one bites the dust.],

The money the participants contributed would be deposited into an independent ‘Trust Fund’ rather than into the general operating fund, and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no other Government program [Under Johnson the money was moved to the General Fund and the Trust Fund no longer exists. This makes five broken promises.], and

The annuity payments to the retirees would never be taxed as income [Under Clinton & Gore up to 85% of your Social Security can be taxed which makes six lies that were told.].

Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are now receiving a Social Security check every month — and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of the money we paid to the Federal government to ‘put away.’

The worst part about it is uninformed citizens believe these promises were never made to citizens. If enough people hear this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe changes will come. Maybe not, though. Some from both parties are awfully sure of what isn’t so — but it’s worth a try.

Remember this in November when you go to the polls. Both parties want to control you. Neither group wants to balance our budget or limit the number of terms that Congress and the Senate serve. They all want to live off your taxes and make fortunes from those they make wealthy while turning away from helping We the People.

Check the history of the shutdowns of our federal government and see that these two groups function as co-conspirators to destroy our country. It is time to vote against every politician on the local, state, and national level. Keep listening to partisan politics of any group and you will soon lose what freedoms you still have.

Cobra Scare

August 15, 2026

August 15, 1953 – A homeowner in Springfield, Missouri killed a 4½ foot long snake with a hoe. The snake was later identified as a deadly hooded cobra. Springfield was soon terrified as one cobra after another turned up. This all happened a year before I was born.

Reo Mowrer, owner of an exotic pet store a block away from where the first snake was found, denied they were his. As the hunt continued, police played snake charmer music through a loudspeaker to lure the snakes out. Cobras are deaf. Music does not draw the snakes through the music except by the vibrations

Frank Pike holding the stick with the cobra. Carl Gustafson is police officer in middle.

The story made national news and was featured in Life Magazine as eleven snakes were eventually killed. Mike O’Brien, a columnist for the News and Leader, reported in the seventies that the mystery had not been solved about the source of the reptiles.

Mister Mowrer had spoken to reporter O’Brien before his death and had admitted that he had a shipment of exotic snakes delivered just before the scare. The cobras were some of this illegal order. This information was not to be released until after his death.

Officers looking for more snakes

Years later, a Springfield man confessed that as a youth he had released the snakes from the pet shop. He was angry that a fish he bought there had died and the owner refused to refund his money. When I managed a pet store, our policy was to give a forty-eight-hour warranty with the return of the dead fish.

Holding another dead snake

If only that had been in effect in nineteen fifty-three this entire adventure would never have taken place. Now you see why enjoy writing non-fiction more than fiction. You just can’t make this stuff up.

Hillbilly at Heart

August 13, 2026

I remember in the 1960s when The Beverly Hillbillies first aired. As Ozarks Hillbillies, we knew that Jed and Granny and the rest of their family were not the same as us. They did not know about doorbells, modern telephones, or television. I remember when Jethro hooked up a phone for Granny and made it a party line.

Silver Dollar City and Branson, Missouri, are where we learned that we were in the hills. Some call it the Ozark Mountains or plateau. When they brought the cast and crew to these hills to film several episodes in the backdrop of SDC, the whole backstory changed. They were no longer from the Bugtussel and Oxford area.

The mayor of the city, Shad Heller, visited them in California on the set there. Of course, the interior scenes were filmed on a sound stage for the Ozarks episodes as well as the other episodes. This is common for most shows. Exteriors are often shot on location, while it is easier to use sound stages for the various interior and other shots.

Around that time, Judge Justin Ruark, a native of Neosho, eloquently defined an Ozarks Hillbilly as “an individual who has learned the real luxury of doing without the entangling complications of things which the dependent and over-pressured city dweller is required to consider as necessities.”

“The hillbilly foregoes the hard grandeur of high buildings and canyon streets in exchange for wooded hills and verdant valleys. In place of creeping traffic, he accepts the rippling flow of the wandering stream.” I have lived most of my life inside Springfield, the third largest city in our state.

In the last sixty years, most of the Queen City of the Ozarks has become more of an urban city and less of what we thought of as a rural community. Do not try to insult us when you say the term Hillbilly. We are proud to be from the Ozarks, where in twenty minutes we can be in the country with fields, forests, and streams or lakes.

The larger cities have parks where some of these amenities are available, but I can walk less than a mile from my home, which is in Greene County, and go for a walk in the woods or beside a creek. The Ozarks have many small communities that are a lot like the ones Jethro and Ellie Mae came from originally. It only takes ten minutes to reach the heart of a big city.

Silver Dollar City is no longer the tiny community it was in the early sixties. On my first visit there as a boy, we parked where the Marketplace now is and walked directly onto Main Street in front of the SDC Hotel. Shad’s blacksmith shop, Copper Kettle Candy Store, Marvel Cave, and one or two rides were all that was there.

When I traveled to Bradford, PA in 1975, I was asked about my hometown. Bradford had a population of 25,000, and Springfield was 135,000 then. I told them it was a small town, and when I stated the population as of the 1970 census, they realized that my hometown was more than these Yankees realized.

We may be hillbillies; we are not small-town hicks. Springfieldians live in the third largest city in Missouri, with the largest school system in this state. We have a lot to be proud of and should tell everyone that our metro area has been counted with a population of over 500,000 residents. Not bad for a bunch of hillbillies.

Are you your parents?

August 11, 2026

I like to ask people if they have looked in the mirror and seen one of their parents. I am not trying to insult them by saying that they are getting old. That would not be an insult, by the way. There is only one way to avoid becoming older: die now. Death is inevitable, and aging is as well.

If I did not have a good relationship with both of my parents, I would not bring them up in this way. My Dad was not intelligent in the normal way that I think of the word. He never wrote a book, graduated from college, or even high school. He was a city boy and served his country in World War II the best he could.

He was a swabby in the Navy on a repair ship. Yes, he was drafted and assigned to the US Navy. When I thought I might be drafted, I was also talking to them during the Vietnam conflict. I wanted to travel to the Far East but not under government invitation. I wanted to be assigned as a journalist on the front lines.

Dad did his job, came home to Springfield, Missouri, and married our mother. She had to lie about her education to get a factory job that only required a high school diploma. She did not have that either. Dad drove a truck, and Mom had been a waitress and cook in cafes before Zenith hired her.

I can’t drive a truck. Read my column, “I watched a truck driver today,” for more on this. I can cook and started my working career as a fry cook. I ended it as a purchasing manager, was an operations manager for a company I spent twenty-five years with, and graduated with a BA. This was all thanks to their example.

I am not my parents; however, I love them dearly, think of them often, and frequently comment on them in these articles and in my books. Without them, I would not be who I am. The best parts of me are due to them and their influence. My hope is that after reading this, you will say the same of yours.

They were not perfect or spectacular. They never did anything more than what most of us do: work, raise a family, and obey the law most of the time. They never did illegal drugs, drank alcohol to excess, or were arrested. They both served on juries when summoned and took us to church and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

That will not get you the parent of the year award from anyone except your own kids and sometimes not even them. That is the point of this column. What have you done lately to honor your folks? Maybe your parents were abusive and failed you miserably. I’m sorry if that is your story. Mine did not.

I recently spent some time with a professional counselor, and she did, like they all do, try to help us with our problems. She asked about them and my relationship with them growing up, abuse, and substance abuse. There is nothing in my experience in their home that is anything to cause me the difficulties I am having.

Professional counseling is often called for when we are dealing with life’s troubles. Don’t avoid it if you need it. Find a trained and qualified professional who is a good fit with you. Let them direct you to handle your issues, whatever they may be. I’m working on mine, and I hope your parents and you do the same.

Perception or truth

August 8, 2026

One employee is sitting at the computer working on what they were told to do three hours before. The boss is pleased because they are still on the task they were given. He does not know this job will only take them thirty minutes to perform, because he does not know how to do it.

The same official passes another employee who is in a breakroom getting a cup of coffee. He is there with two others who have been drinking coffee for fifteen minutes, and they all go back to their respective desks. “How long have they been in the break room?” he asks his secretary. “Fifteen minutes,” is the reply.

Later that day, the man who was pouring a cup of coffee is reprimanded. He is confused since he had gotten up from his workstation for the first time in three hours and is told he was drinking coffee for fifteen minutes. It is never mentioned to those who were the ones his secretary was talking about.

Perception is the problem in this case. Or, if you have my attitude, the misconceptions of an inefficient supervisor. I hope this has never happened to you. It has been done to thousands of associates at offices and plants all over the world. I know because I’ve seen it here in the U.S., and I believe that people are the same everywhere.

I’ll give you a couple of personal examples. I walked up on the line at a restaurant where I was a manager and saw three people correcting a problem with a customer order. One was out of his workstation. I jumped on him to get back where he belonged.

Once the problem was worked out, the other two informed me that the error was theirs and the young man just came over to help sort things out. I immediately went to him and apologized for my error and thanked him for his efforts.

A few days later, a tray of food flies over his head and hits a wall. The manager who threw it, my boss, storms out of the building. The situation was the same; an order was filled incorrectly. I took this as a sign that I needed to find employment elsewhere and did so. This was my last food service position, and I continued in other industries.

The problem of perception overruling truth is all around us. We often must look beyond what seems to be obvious to us to determine what the reality is. Many companies die because their managers and owners accept perceptions as truth and fail to see the forest for the trees.

I left an employer early on, expecting his business to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and then it took place a few months later. I was a purchasing agent and was constantly having to ask accounting to pay bills that were overdue to clear our accounts to ship new orders. My perception was that our bills should be paid on time.

There are those who have a perception that if they do not pay their bills promptly, nothing will happen. It may take a foreclosure or threat of some catastrophe to correct this erroneous thinking. In business, I’ve made those calls to clients asking for a past-due invoice to be paid. I always considered it a truth that they could pay, if they wanted to. What are your perceptions of the truth, and are you sure you are correct?

You get what you pay for

August 7, 2026

This phrase has been used often to justify spending someone felt was necessary. Sometimes it is a man speaking to his wife about the new boat or car. Other times it is a woman speaking of her new jewelry or dress. Or it may be the Senator, Congressman, or President trying to convince voters that the government’s expenses are reasonable.

In our society, most people, they do not receive the quality and expectations for which they are paying. My career put me in a position to work with manufacturers for twenty-five years, and I ended my career after working at three manufacturers. I learned that the cost of manufacturing products is often a minor part of the retail price.

This is why we have the mysterious MSRP or Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price. Sometimes this is not necessarily suggested by the company that made it. Often a major distributor sets this price. In my first purchasing position, I learned that some major retailers have a minimum markup of 35 to 40 percent. I was required to negotiate special pricing from our vendors to meet these requirements.

When I moved to industrial products, our profit as a distributor was often 75%. I also learned how to calculate profits in a suspiciously obscure way. This is how retailers say they are selling at a percentage of their cost and still make millions of dollars. There are also rebates, hidden discounts, and multiple levels of warehouses that each have a markup.

I have spoken before about stores that open each season with sales of thirty percent discounts, and other retailers only give a ten percent discount on sale prices. My wife and I prefer to purchase products at fifty percent or less of the standard price. We also look for clearance sales and occasionally find 75-90% sales after the season ends.

For fifty years, we have bought things that we could afford. We recently purchased a car that was more expensive than we ever bought before. It was a 2016 Buick SUV with about 60,000 miles. God provided a desire for us that He often has done in previous years. We don’t receive everything we want but often find Him giving us exactly what we desire.

The title of this column is correct, and you receive more than you paid for if you allow Jesus to be Lord of your life. I have followed Him for most of my years and hope that you have found the same to be true in your lives.

Walk With a Servant