Uncategorized – Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

A Christmas to remember

December 4, 2025

It’s the holiday season. Halloween and Thanksgiving are over. Thoughts go to Mom and Dad and times long gone. Gone, but not forgotten. Growing up in Springfield, MO, was great. Life was easy for a child. Not so much for parents. Kids could be kids. Television was available, but not a necessity for the young. Not yet, anyway.

Toys in the nineteen-sixties were exploding. Improvements in batteries have enabled mechanical and electronic devices to surpass those powered by wind or hand. I remember those, though. Vanessa had the monkey that banged on the cymbals. Someone had a bank shaped like a firetruck that was a bank.

The Sears and other catalogs brought never-before-seen toys to the home. The method chosen for allowing parents to determine what to buy was to circle the item in a catalog. Because there were four children, each put their initials inside the circle. If a brother or sister had already circled and marked an item, all one had to do was include another set of initials.

Later, Mom or Dad would review the selections and their prices and place the order for the gifts. One particular year, a helicopter was one of the choices. There was a cargo door that opened. Accessories that could be lifted in and out of the fuselage by a battery-operated crane. Lights flashed, and while the propeller did not turn, it made a noise that sounded like it was.

The other things marked that year are long forgotten. When the boxes were opened, that was the gift. There was a problem. The cargo door hinges were broken. The door could not be closed. It just fell off. No one was on the phone on Christmas Day. The toy was played with carefully. Everything else was inspected, and the next business day, a phone call was made.

The damaged item was placed back in its box and set aside until it could be returned and a new one sent. The call was a disappointment. None of the helicopters were left. All had been sold. It could be returned, and some other items shipped to replace it.

All that was broken was a hinge on the plastic door. A metal pin was found in the junk drawer that could replace the plastic that broke. The tip of an ice pick was heated, and a hole was made. The pin was inserted and carefully glued in place. It lasted longer than the electrical part of the helicopter.

A few years later, when the toy was thrown away, the door hinge still worked. The lights could no longer be lit. The winch had stopped working. The propeller blades had been snapped and repaired more times than could be remembered. The repaired hinge still worked fine. The final accident was a crash from a stairway landing that caved in the opposite side of the fuselage. New toys had been received, and it was not necessary to try to fix them this time.

Sometimes toys are never forgotten, even if their names are not Buzz and Woody.

Chapter Eleven

November 18, 2025

Living with God

November 8, 2025

Taking time to think about where you live is a pastime many of us have. We worry if our homes are as expensive, beautiful, or happy as our neighbors, friends, and family. That is our concern. God’s is expressed by King David in Psalm 15.

“A Psalm of David. Jehovah, who lives in your tabernacle? Who stays on your holy hill? He who is walking upright and doing what is righteous, who speaks the truth in his heart. He has not spoken disrespectfully. He has not done evil to his neighbor and he has not criticized his neighbor. He has despised with his eyes the one that God has rejected and honors those who respect Jehovah. He has agreed to suffering and does not change his mind. He has cheated no one and does not take a bribe against the innocent. The one who is doing these things will never be moved.” (Ps 15:1-5).

Remember that when these words were written the Temple of Solomon had not been constructed. The presence of Jehovah was thought to inhabit the Tabernacle that had been created during Moses’ time. More specifically, He inhabited the Ark of the Covenant.

Walking upright and being righteous are ways of stating that this person obeys Yahweh. They also speak the truth that they have hidden in their inner most being. Jesus said in John chapter fourteen that He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. They also do not speak disrespectfully. I think this means about God.

There are many kinds of evil that we can do to our neighbors. I’m not just talking about the ones that live next to you. Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan to explain what God meant by loving our neighbors as ourselves. In that story a Jew had been attacked on a road. A Priest and a Levite had both avoided the injured man.

Samaritans were hated by the Jews. Why would one of them stop to help? They understood the law better than the Hebrew officials. Do you ever feel that Christians do not know their Bible as well as they should? I do and that is the reason why I call myself a born-again believer.

The actual place where Yahweh lives is what we call Heaven. It is outside of space and time. God created those after He existed. Remember Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.” He was already abiding in His home that we call heaven. The heavens are what we see in the sky both during the day and the night.

The one who resides with Jehovah honors those who respect Him and disrespects those who reject Him. Not cheating others or taking bribes are honorable things as well. However, agreeing with suffering seems extreme. Most of us do not want to suffer for Christ even if He suffered for us.

Believing that we will live with our savior and His Father after we die is considered “pie in the sky by and by” according to some. I am sure that they would call me deranged to say that we are there right now and will only realize it when our bodies cease to function. That’s what I call living.

Nobody

November 4, 2025

Once again, Jesus brought this Casting Crowns song to my attention. He does this often. When I am down and need something to bring me back to what my ministry is, He sends His personal message to me. It is never a verbal word from Him. If I stop and listen, I know what He has done. Let me tell you about this time.

It starts out with the question of why God chose me. Do you ever ask yourself why you felt a desire to accept Christ when others easily refuse? I accepted Him when I was a kid. In college, I rejected the Church I attended, not God. He then asked me to accept a call to His ministry. I still do not understand that.

I never thought of myself as one of the not-quites or worthless individuals, as some do. I knew what I wanted to do. I once thought I might be a good candidate for President of the US. I thought that after a few years as a reporter, I might want to try my hand at politics.

Like the writer of this song, I can relate to Moses’ apprehension at being a leader and how David felt when he stepped up and accepted the call to fight Goliath. He was young and already believed that he could do anything he was asked to do. It took me a few more years to get there, but I think I may be close.

David did, in fact, take rocks to a sword fight. Yes, I said rocks. Reread the story, and you will see that after he shed Saul’s armor and sword, he took up his shepherd’s pouch, staff, and sling. He stopped and selected five stones that he placed in the bag. Some wonder why others have said that his opponent had four brothers. Only one was a brother. The other three were cousins. He was prepared.

I am beginning to see who He wants me to be. I minister to those I worked with and around for over forty years. I’ve worked with multiple groups in churches and other ministries. Now you are my congregation. I hope I can come across as loving and understanding as Jesus did.

That’s what He tried to teach His followers. He showed love to everyone, even those who opposed Him. He did not stop there. He died for all of us. Even those who wanted Him dead forced the Romans to execute Him.

I know I will not go down in history. All I can ask for is what the chorus of this song says. I just want to tell you what I know about my Lord and Savior. I am not important in any way other than as a witness to what a life of service can mean. I hope that you want to be a nobody like I am.

What jobs would you want?

August 30, 2025

Police, fire, teaching, medicine, general business, and manufacturing. Some of these are ones that children think of when they are asked what they want to be. These and many others are the jobs that some of us have spent our lives involved in.

As we approach Labor Day, I would like to give you a short history of my work experience. My first real job was as a fry cook at Dog ‘N Suds in Springfield, MO. I also learned how to take orders, prepare sandwiches, change and fill fountain tanks, pull drinks, and do anything else that needed to be done.

Thanks to that experience, I was allowed to be a closing manager. About a year and a half later, I was offered a job working at Zenith Radio Corporation, working on the final line while building televisions. It was a very interesting job.

I installed five screws and hung the tuner. That’s all. I tried to help the guy before me and the one after me until the supervisor told me to do my job and no one else’s. My Mother had been worried that I might decide to stay and drop out of school. I told her I never wanted to work in a factory again.

When school started, I took a job at the local Denny’s Restaurant. This was after I had tried my hand at selling fire alarms door-to-door. My intention was to leave town next fall when I started Journalism school at the University of Missouri. I thought that I would look for a job when I arrived in Colombia.

I ended up transferring to Southwest Baptist in Bolivar, MO, and did not return to the workforce until February of my senior year. Then I returned to food service by joining the opening staff at the first Wendy’s in my hometown. When I graduated, I was offered a chance to enter their management trainee program, and I accepted it.

Cindy and I got married, and two weeks later, we moved to Joplin. We opened the first store there, and by September, I had left them and gone to work as an assistant manager at a local convenience store. Then Cindy’s boss offered me a job as marketing director.

My job and Cindy’s ended six months later. I learned a new set of skills while marketing new products and helping organize a new division of the business. Opportunities were short on supply in our new town. We packed up after a week and returned to the third-largest city in Missouri.

I applied for unemployment and was approved, and had two weeks to wait for the payments to start. The unemployment office referred me to an interview for a sales job at five dollars a week less than their payments would be. I had to take it. I was selling pet supplies, which were new for me.

I read everything I could on the pets and products, and in three months, I became the store manager for a different store with the same company. A few months later, I was moved to a position at the wholesale warehouse owned by the same man. My next promotion with them was to a purchasing agent. This launched me on a completely new career track.

A few months later, I moved to a new company as a P.A. After changing jobs every few months, I wanted stability. I stayed there twenty-five years and moved to office manager, outside sales, and finally operations manager. After waiting four years for another promotion, I decided to take a buyer’s job at one of my customers.

A few months later, I was advanced to purchasing supervisor. It was the best job I ever had. It ended in less than five years, and I spent three years drawing unemployment and working temp jobs. I finally found a job as a purchasing manager and ended my career with that manufacturer a few years later.

My careers spanned four decades, and then I began a new one as a writer. You get to witness this firsthand as I write columns and books and see where my talents and interests can take me. I hope you enjoy this ride as much as I have all of mine. I can’t wait to see if this one is a roller coaster or something less intense.

Terror in the hospital

June 24, 2025

Not really, but I had to get your attention, didn’t I? I went through the standard check-in for the emergency department. We went through the process of triage. I spent five hours waiting to be taken to a room. I’d been answering the same questions repetitively.

These are the typical neurological, cardiac, and psychiatric screening processes. Two EKG’s, blood work, and chest X-ray. I’ve gone through this many times before except for the psych evaluation. When I finally was taken to a room, we waited for all the test results. Nothing out of the ordinary was discovered.

I tried to sleep. I was still fasting, and they only checked my blood sugar twice in eight hours. The reason I was required to go to the ER was to make sure my blood pressure and sugar levels were in range, I did not have dementia, or serious psychiatric problems.

A taxi took me home where I waited for the driver to pull out and got into my car and left again. I spent the morning looking for a place to stay without returning home. There was nowhere that the Lord made available for me.

I had to swallow my pride and ask Cindy to forgive me. I knew it would not be easy. When I got back home and went into the house Cindy and I began the process of forgiving each other and trying to find a way to prevent this from happening again. I am currently continuing outpatient testing to confirm that this problem does not happen again.

Let’s face it, none of us are perfect. Almost every couple has arguments or quarrels. The way you handle them is the main problem. I handled this one incorrectly. We are continuing to work through whatever causes disagreements.

It is possible to find common ground on almost anything if you try hard enough. Understanding, forgiveness, and compromise are the keys. Most marriages fail when one spouse chooses that they must have their way.

It is important to talk things out and express love in your partner’s primary love language. Communication is so essential to every relationship, it should be a priority. Remember why you decided to get married and be sure you maintain those loving actions.

I base what I write on a Christian world view. That means I speak of what Jesus taught in treating others as you want to be treated. I also emphasize the way love is defined in First Corinthians chapter 13. Love is patient and kind, it is just the beginning.

The Book of Love

May 29, 2025

In 1957 the song “Who Wrote the Book of Love?” came out. As a youngster, I did not understand what love was and the actual meaning that question held. Is there a book of love and if so, who is the author? As a writer, authorship is of personal importance. I have learned that the Book of Love is also known as the Bible. It has many authors and many of the Bible books speak of love.

Let’s take the book of Genesis first. Jehovah created the universe. He also made men and women, the Hebrew Nation, and the freewill He gave them caused a lot of trouble for humanity. He showed His love for us by giving us a second chance. Even if you do not believe in a worldwide flood, I hope you can see that exterminating almost all the people on the planet was an act of love.

The next four books finish out what is referred to as The Law. It can be difficult to understand why a loving God would create these rules that many believe spoil their fun. The Law is Yahweh’s love letter to humanity. We rejected His love when Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

You and I had no choice at that time. Today, we do have the opportunity to say yes or no to Jesus. He showed His love to us by giving His life to renew the relationship that was lost in the garden. The Law was put in place to show us that we had missed the mark. That is what sin is. Being unable to accomplish what we need to do is a failure.

The books of history from Joshua through Esther tell how Jehovah kept trying to convince the Israelites and Gentiles of God’s love. God guides the Hebrews to take the land He has given them. Killing those who oppose God’s law may not seem like love to you. Jehovah wants the Children of Israel to learn who He is and who He can be to them. Israel as a nation needed to give Yahweh a place to be born and teach us what He wants to do for us.

Poetry like Job and Psalms tell us about love. God’s love is shown to Job by not allowing Satan to destroy him and giving him a new life as we can have through Christ. Look at Psalm 8, 23, or 119. These are love songs from David and others to God. The 119^th Psalm declares the writer’s love for the law, word, and statutes of our Lord.

Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are books of wisdom from Solomon and David. The love of a father is expressed throughout the proverbs and is seen in the frustration of the preacher and his realization that the only thing that we can believe in is Jehovah and His promises.

The greatest love story in the Bible is in the Song of Solomon. The King of Israel declares his love for an unidentified woman. As a teenager, I found the use of certain terms such as breasts to be sexual. They are but God created them and sex. The language describes the sexual desire of a man for a woman. This can be an expression of love.

Both the major and the minor prophets show the love that Jehovah has for the Hebrews as well as all the people of the world. These books predict the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus and identify Him as the son of God and heir to David’s throne for eternity. What more can love be, than that God would become a man and die for us.

The gospels and the book of Acts show us Jesus’ love for humanity and how the plan of salvation through his death and resurrection brings us to new life through Him. His words of love for mankind and His promises to get us into His presence speak volumes.

The New Testament letters all point us to the fact that our only hope is accepting the salvation that Christ brought us. These were written by several men who Knew Jesus both as a man on this earth and as their Savior and Lord after His resurrection.

Revelation is the final statement of God to His followers. He wants us to know that we will win the battle with Satan. We don’t know when this war between Jehovah’s goodness and the rejection of Him which is evil, began. It will end in time at some point in our future. Much of this book is a mystery.

Symbolism is rampant here. The love of Christ which is the love of God is shown in those who love Him coming to be in His presence and those who reject Him will spend an eternity separated from the one they would not even acknowledge existed. Which are you?

Welcome home, Carl

May 18, 2025

Some of you would say that you lost another friend. Carl is not lost. He hasn’t been lost since he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior around the time I was born. I know he is in the presence of God which we often refer to as Heaven.

Carl and I had many conversations about Jesus and Heaven over the forty plus years that we have known each other. I met him when I joined Hamlin Memorial Baptist Church. He was our deacon for years.

He recruited me to lead Church Training classes and recommended me for the position when he stepped down. We served on the BTN committee at church for its short-lived tour. The Greene County Baptist Association joined this organization which provided training materials to churches and associations.

He was my mentor in the deacon ministry when I was first ordained. A few years later when he was the chairman of the deacon body, he asked me to be the assistant chairman. This meant I would be the next chairman. Thanks to Carl I got the pleasure of leading the congregation during the retirement of our friend and pastor.

His son Greg worked for my wife before she had our first daughter. Carl and Harriett became surrogate grandparents for our children when we moved into their neighborhood. For almost twenty years we remained neighbors and would visit them while Harriett was homebound.

As our deacon he joined me in the waiting room when Cindy had surgeries. We ministered together with the other deacons and leaders in the church. The stories I remember are too numerous to recount here. I’ll share one that very few know about.

Greg was working in Kansas City when a walkway collapsed at the hotel where he was employed. It was a story that hit our local news. We called Carl and Harriett and asked if they had heard from their son. They had a call from him. He was fine.

While they were dealing with Harriett’s health issues, I was often his sounding board. We did not live far from each other and before Carl had to stay home with her, I saw him at church every week. We had an agreement that nothing we said to each other would ever be repeated.

I used to say that I would see friends in Heaven when I arrived there some day. Today Jesus’ words have led me to believe that we are already there. It is not like we drop into God’s presence when we accept Christ. Being outside of time, He has us with Him even before our death on this planet. I know that sounds strange. Trust Him and you are with those you love who trust Him as well.

Ground hog day

January 31, 2024

Yes, February second is just around the corner. Most of us just ignore the note on the calendar. There are no sales on Amazon, Penney’s, or Kohls. We do not have the day off from our jobs unless we schedule vacation. What is there to say or write about this stupid holiday?

I want to promote traditional meals like Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Chanuka. We do receive time off for some of these festivals. We still put together a big meal for our families. They are full of traditional dishes from our cultures that have been passed down for weeks, months, or even years. Some are traditions spanning over ten years.

This year it falls on a Friday. Your family may want to celebrate on Saturday or Sunday. Be like the Reagans from the “Blue Bloods” show and have a Sunday dinner for once. They do it every week and someone is almost always called during the meal. Your group does not have to solve a murder, a terrorist crisis, or even the New York Times crossword puzzle.

Eggs are for Easter, barbeque is for Independence Day, turkey for Thanksgiving, and green beer is served on St. Patrick’s Day. What could we possibly serve for Groundhog’s Day? When my children were young, I served sausage on a Saturday that was designated on the calendar as this neglected holiday. I informed them that we would begin this special day by eating the ground hog.

They were not reading my words. They thought I said groundhog. No space between two words. I continue this tradition when I can. This year I decided that instead of promoting what the politicians are trying to shove down our throats I wanted to encourage the hog farmers to keep up the good work. They have a legitimate reason for slinging slop.

At some point on Groundhog Day weekend serve your favorite kind of ground hog. It can be links, patties, Italian sausage on a pizza, or any other form of ground pork in whatever recipe your family enjoys. For those of you in the northern states that have never heard of it you could even serve biscuits with sausage gravy. I remember asking for them in a hotel restaurant in Philadelphia one morning and the waitress looked at me like I was crazy.

That may have been justified because some know I am crazy. She had just met me and had no other clue about my mental status. Family recipes can be used to enhance any celebration. Do you have a breakfast casserole recipe that you use for Christmas which includes sausage? This is the perfect time to serve it for lunch or dinner.

I know some of my readers may wonder why I am having fun with this whimsical holiday. I enjoy trying to be funny when I write. It is difficult to insert humor when you are speaking of serious subjects. I have the most fun when I can sound ridiculous in what is a truly outrageous column. Join me on the second of February with possibly your first Groundhog Day ground hog feast. Enjoy.

Are you more important than anyone else?

October 19, 2023

Driving through Springfield streets it can often be noticed that certain people do not obey traffic laws, signs and stop lights. As a Christian you may wonder who these people are or, hopefully not, you may find yourself participating in these unlawful and unsafe practices. The only explanation for this is that those who ignore common sense or instruction and posted ordinances believe they are better than everyone else.

Why you should stop at yellow and red lights.

Some examples of this observed behavior are those who do not attempt to stop when the traffic light turns to yellow. When the Springfield Police cars and Greene County Sherriff cruisers do this it is common knowledge that they do not have to obey the laws they are paid to enforce. Why should they set the example by stopping just because the light has turned yellow. Those who drive through red lights must just be off duty officers that know they won’t get any tickets. How many people are killed in accidents when the instruction of a light is ignored? No more than two hundred or so each year. Who cares about that small a number?

It isn’t always the motorist’s fault.

Bicyclists can go anywhere they want to because they are cutting down on the pollution by riding. Sidewalks are alright unless you look at local ordinances. Just because there is a marked lane showing the cyclists to follow the flow of other vehicles that doesn’t mean you can’t travel on the wrong side of the road and cuss the drivers that aren’t paying attention to you being where you aren’t supposed to be. If you are hit and killed by a motorist, they will be blamed and must live with it, not you.

Roundabout gymnastics.

Do you like round-abouts? Is that why you do not yield to traffic that is going around the circle? Those of you that drive your trucks over the center destroying the expensive landscaping do not care that we all had to pay for it. What is even better are the medians that are placed between the lanes on small two-lane roads for no good reason other than for idiots to drive in the wrong lanes.

Both motorists and cyclists can be in the wrong.

I won’t even talk about the motorcyclists that we are all reminded to keep safe by watching for them as they speed between lanes of traffic to get in front of cars. It is especially enjoyable to watch them pop their wheelies as they race down the road. The last thing I want is to drive over them when they wipe out on a grease spot.

Another accident averted.

The two biggest problems are inattentiveness and impairment. Missouri finally has decided to make texting and the use of handheld phones while driving illegally. It only causes ten percent of the traffic fatalities each year according to the CDC. Many of these are single car accidents. They account for sixty percent of deaths. Thank you for not taking me with you.

Only 29 deaths every day nationwide are caused by impaired drivers. That is why they are allowed to offend again and again. They lose their licenses and keep driving. They kill others and continue to be released after a few years to kill again. Why isn’t this stopped? Check you local, state, and federal law makers to see what percentage of them have had DUI’s. Maybe we should check the records before we vote for them?

Thank you for letting me rant. I know you won’t do anything about it until someone you care about dies. Watch out for those other motorists who don’t care about you. Or maybe that includes you and I?

Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

Walk With a Servant

Category: Uncategorized