Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

“Chuck”

March 2, 2026

https://www.youtube.com/embed/TFdjgZOQrIM

Have you ever seen this TV series from 2007 to 2012? I am going to tell you something that has never been published anywhere before now. This story is about me. It has been altered greatly from my true original story. I did not go to Stanford University or work as a computer nerd.

I do not know Chris Fedak or Josh Schwartz who are the creators of this show. How they were able to link this fictional tale to my name is beyond me. I do not want any royalties or profit from their scripts. Titles cannot be copy written and I have no claim against anyone for infringing upon my privacy.

Why do I say this series was based on my life? First it is my name. Then there is the beautiful woman that I am married to. The character of Sarah Walker and Cindy do not have the same hair color. Cindy has never worked for the CIA and the way we met was completely different from what the series shows.

My best friend at the time ended up being my best man at our wedding and surprisingly, they got the part correct that we worked together. They also got it right that I have a sister. They did leave out my two brothers. Neither of my parents were spies and they were at our wedding as well.

They also got it correct that I did not finish at the university where I started my degree program. However, I was not expelled, I transferred and did receive my diploma from another college. I also never let my girlfriend drive my company car, so she never wrecked it. I played video games but not much after Cindy and I began dating. As I recall, neither did Chuck after he met Sarah.

That is another way that the writers hit my story head on. I know that if they tried to stay closer to my real life it would have been boring. I am just glad that they did not make it a situation comedy. The dramedy genre was a much more flattering format.

I can just see if they had titled it everybody loves Chuck or according to Chuck. All the crazy stuff my brothers and sister and I did would not have been half as interesting as the scripts for those two shows. I do wish that one of the characters in M.A.S.H., the Waltons, or Dr. Quinn Medicine woman had been Chuck or Cindy. In that case the show I claimed as ours would have lasted a lot longer.

Is there a show that you wish you could claim was about your life? Comment below and tell me the similarities and the differences in yours. If no one comments I will know that I am still a unique individual. Happy watching.

Tools

March 1, 2026

I’ve used a lot of them in my life. This is the first in a series of columns that are on these useful instruments. Anthropology tells us that these are signs of creatures being humanlike. Genesis does not bother to tell us when the wheel or other tools were invented.

Fire is another tool that Moses did not see fit to discuss. Much has been written about it. I’ll talk more about it another time. When I saved this file, I had to put it in a category, and I chose the Words file. They are one of my favorite tools.

The thought that sparked this article was my splitting maul. I know many of you are not familiar with this apparatus. I purchased mine over thirty years ago. We had moved onto Talmage Street to the second home that we owned. It had a wood stove in the family room.

These were invented by Ben Franklin. The wood stove, not the splitting maul. Our stove was not a Franklin type, but it was efficient enough to supplement the heating in our four-bedroom, two-bath house. I am probably incorrect when I say Ben invented the stove. He developed the Franklin Stove. I also probably need to be more specific about wood stoves.

In the nineteen-eighties I saw a picture of a wood stove that was only good for one use. It was not safe. It was made of wood. I am talking of a steel unit designed to burn wood. Today I split wood to fuel our fireplace in our current home. This is considered a luxury item in today’s standards.

Before gas, coal, or central heating, it was common in every structure. Our first load of wood was purchased by my mother. It came cut and split. Have you seen those small bundles of wood at grocery and home stores? They usually appear in the fall. Those are for apartment dwellers that have a fireplace for decorative purposes.

Some of my friends began bringing us cut logs for our stove. It must be sacked and cured to burn properly. I cover mine with a tarp to keep it relatively dry. It was not long before I became aware of our need for a device to split the larger logs. That is when I purchased my maul. You can split with an axe, but it is not as efficient as a triangular head mail.

I learned this from my travels as a salesman at the time. Some of my customers sold these items in many designs and styles. I even called on one plant that manufactured stoves, which stocked assorted accessories for the stoves. I discussed the splitting mauls with the salesmen at these companies and discovered one that I thought was best for me.

It has a heavy triangular steel head welded to a steel handle with a cushioned grip. Buying it was the easy part. Learning how to use it properly has taken me many years. The best way that I have discovered is to place the log to be split on a shorter log. You raise the maul and allow the weight of the head to propel it down with the aid of gravity.

The trick is to hit the end of the log in a spot that will split. This takes trial and error with each different log. That first winter after I had my maul, I learned the best time to split wood was when it was frozen. The fibers are more rigid and separate more easily at twenty degrees Fahrenheit or less.

I am sure many of you wonder why I just wasted your time explaining all of this. That is the thing about all tools. Some of us use them, and others care less about those they do not need. Is that how you treat people? I hope not.

Tamper evident tape

February 28, 2026

While breaking down some cardboard boxes for recycling just now, I found these words on the sealing tape as I slit it and folded the box up. I thought it was appropriately named. As a purchasing agent for forty years, I have seen products that were called “tamper-proof tape.” They weren’t.

I carry a pocketknife. Where? Duh, in my pocket. I have for years. I also always had box cutters in my desk drawer or workstation. I could open any package or box you gave me. I also removed the tape and replaced it with new tape to reuse the boxes.

An expert eye knew I had done this. I trained others to be as good or better than me at reusing packaging materials. I even sold paint that was specifically designed to cover brown boxes and conceal markings that were printed on them. So, what is the purpose of tamper-evident tape?

When a vendor sends you a package, and you start to open it, if I have slit it and hurriedly retaped it, you can tell. We all know about tamper-proof medicine packaging. When I was little, we did not have that. Then, some guy decided to poison people he did not even know. Now, I sometimes wish I could use explosives to open those boxes and bottles.

These are all signs of the fallen world that we live in. Yes, I said Fallen. We messed it up. If you don’t know this story, it is in the book of beginnings in the Bible. (Genesis 3) You do know that the Hebrew word for beginning is Genesis, and that is where the title of this book comes from, because it starts, “In the beginning God.”

It does not matter if we accept it or not. It is true, and those who deny it are false. There is right and wrong, even if I want to do wrong and call it correct behavior. That is why we need tamper-evident tape. Some want to get into our packages and remove what they want.

I’ve contacted vendors when a box did not have what it was supposed to. The first question is always, “Had the tape been tampered with?” My answer was that I did not believe it had been. It is the same in our lives. Family, friends, and others want to control, use, or abuse us. Don’t let them. There is someone who encourages them to do this. He is our constant adversary. The Bible calls him Satan.

How do you make your life tamper-evident? You will never be tamper-proof. Be honest and forthright with everyone. Stay true to what Jesus and Holy Spirit tell you to do. Avoid the temptations that Satan, the adversary, puts in your way. And pray that He will protect you and your family.

The last fifty years

February 27, 2026

In 1968, when Richard Nixon was nominated by the Republicans for President, his running mate was Spiro Agnew. Shortly after the 1972 election, some charges of impropriety forced Agnew to resign. With the majority of his second term ahead, Gerald Ford was selected to become the V.P. He had been a congressman for twenty-five years.

Ford became the 38^th chief executive and had a difficult campaign against Jimmy Carter, the 1976 Democratic candidate. President Ford pardoned President Nixon before he could even be charged with any crimes from the Watergate Hotel break-in. This was considered by some as the biggest hit on his prospects.

Ford lost to Carter, and the party shift kicked in again. Carter served from 1977 to 1981. During his first term, the Shaw of Iran was overthrown, and a pro-Muslim government took power. The U.S. Embassy was attacked, and hostages were seized on November 4, 1979. The thirty-ninth President lost his second bid for the office in 1980.

The power shifted once again when Ronald Regan defeated the incumbent based on failure to solve the hostage problem and other fiscal problems attributed to his administration. Regan held office until 1989 after winning the 1984 election as well. The hostages were released before Regan was inaugurated as our fortieth chief executive.

“Read my lips, no new taxes” was the campaign promise that convinced many to continue a Republican Presidency under Vice-President George H. W. Bush. His term was from 1989 to 1993. When other Republicans convinced him to sign a tax proposal that Congress passed, the Democrats used it to their advantage.

They nominated Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton as their candidate, and he defeated the forty-first to become the forty-second President. Clinton’s administration featured a joint Presidency with his wife, according to the GOP. She had no official title or authority. They were in the White House from 1993 to 2001.

Do you remember the September 11, 2001, attacks on our country? Muslim radicals hijacked four passenger jets and crashed them. Two took out buildings in New York City, part of the Pentagon building in Washington, D C., and the last went down in Pennsylvania.

When our forty-third President, George W. Bush, the son of the forty-first, addressed us that evening, he launched an investigation to determine how this could happen. We were involved in wars in the Middle East to eliminate factions supposedly responsible for this attack. His administration ran from 2001 to 2009.

Are you getting tired of the constant flip-flop of power from one political party to the other for over one hundred years? In 2008, we elected our first African American President, Barack Obama, a Democrat from Chicago, as the forty-fourth man to hold the office. He served until 2017.

I will not make any comments about the last three Presidents. There are situations that I feel will have to be resolved before we know what should be said without hurting feelings. Both current parties have opposing opinions of what should and should not be commented on. I hope these columns have given you insights into who our leaders have been.

Lost, yet found

February 26, 2026

Recently, our dog was able to get out of our fenced backyard. We were devastated and went looking for him. My wife posted pictures of him on Facebook and Lea’s Lost and Found. He was returned to us by a very kind lady who told us he came up to her, scratching on her car door.

Friends were watching in our neighborhood, and a doorbell video was sent to us, and he was found not far from that location. He had a chip, collar, and rabies tag, which helped to identify him as ours. A few thoughts have come to my mind.

Thank you to everyone who saw the posts and especially to the lady who took him to her home and brought Biscuit to me after Cindy called her and identified him. She was kind and knew he had to belong to someone who was looking for him. Thank you also to Lea Moody and KY3 for the site that was used to establish contact between us and the woman that he went to.

When we first took Biscuit in from a family whose father had gone into a nursing home, we had him run off if he got out into the unfenced front yard. We had a chip put into him by the Humane Society. Thank you to them, as well. They work hard to help families keep and reconnect with their pets.

When he returned home, he was so happy to be back. His attitude toward being out in our fenced backyard was different. He was anxious and did not want to be left alone. We could tell that he was afraid he might have lost humans who loved him, again.

For those of you who do not know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, have you realized that you are lost and need to be found? We are smarter than dogs. Biscuit knew to go to a human hoping for help. You need to go to Jehovah and ask Him to take you back into His good graces by accepting Him as your savior and Lord.

You say you do not believe in God or Jesus. Do you believe that anyone could help you with your feelings of being lost? Why not give Him a try? A lost dog tried the first person he found. That turned out to be the one that could help. Make the attempt. Finding someone to talk to about your feelings is another thing to do. If you have a church that you know, the pastor might be a person to help you. Ask him or her to tell you about Jesus as well.

Don’t use the excuse that you have done things that God would never forgive. There is only one sin that He will not forgive. That is rejecting His Son. Have you read about the two men who were crucified with Jesus? One rejected Him, and the other asked to be remembered when He came into His Kingdom. That man was told he would be with Jesus that day.

Refusing to believe is your choice. Suffering the consequences of your choices is a common thing for us. Do not believe that Yahweh will make you live with Him throughout eternity if you do not wish to. After all, He wants you to have what you want, even if that is a life without Him.

I don’t always understand

February 25, 2026

“I trust His ways, but I do not always understand them.” It is a line by John Ritter as Reverend Matthew Fordwick in the Waltons TV series from the 1970s. This is from season 1, episode 24, where Olivia is diagnosed with polio. This series is set in the 1930s, during the Great Depression. Polio was a devastating disease at that time that had no vaccine available to protect the population.

Reverend Fordwick comes to visit Mrs. Walton in the early days of her illness and is questioned by Grandma as to the seriousness of the disease. She replies that she thought he was a man of God. His reply is one that I, as a minister, have used myself. I have also stated when asked why God allows or causes things to happen that I am in sales, not in management.

I’ve worked in sales and management for different companies. In a position where my job was to convince customers to purchase products, there were some questions I could not answer. When I was a store manager, it was my responsibility to always answer a client’s questions to the best of my ability. I did my best in both situations.

There were times when customers would not like my decisions about how to solve a problem. I had superiors whom they could refer to. On more than one occasion, I gave the names and contact information to the complainer. Not once was I overturned. This was not the case in every management position I occupied.

I do not understand why God created human beings. I know, I’ve heard the preachers say that He needed someone to love. He already created dogs and cats. They are more lovable than most people. My cat is on my lap at this moment, and the dog is next to Cindy.

Yes, sometimes the dog doesn’t do what he is told to, but the cat never follows orders. And unlike children, you cannot beat her into submission. She’s too fast. Turn around, and she is gone, and you will never find her.

I do not understand why, when He loved us so much, we must take care of the animals. Why weren’t they created to work for us and let us lie around all day and sleep? Put a bowl of Chex mix on the table with my insulated cup of iced tea, and I’ll be fine. No one is required to take me outside or clean my litter box.

If I were God, I would . . . have really botched things up. I don’t even know what my wife wants for Christmas. How would I keep the seas from flooding the shores and tell the birds and the butterflies when to fly south? Maybe I should just accept that He knows best and let Him stay in charge. Especially in my life.

City Utilities

February 24, 2026

Yes, once again, I am speaking about local events here in Springfield, Missouri, where I live. We are the third largest city in our state and the largest of all the Springfields in the U.S. If you think I am incorrect, check the last census. I’m not like the President; you can check your facts to prove me right or wrong.

A company seeking to provide battery storage for our utility company may be denied access to property near my home. There are infrastructure and groundwater contamination problems that their proposal does not address. This company does not have a lot of experience here in our country.

C.U. still needs a cost-effective solution for expanding its services as our area grows even more. I would like to make a suggestion. Would it help to eliminate about twenty percent of your consumers from your grid? Not just drop them as customers, but change them to suppliers of energy.

Some areas allow or even encourage users to install solar and wind generators on their property. These can be businesses or homes. They can invest in the equipment to produce and store energy, and electric companies purchase the surplus that they generate. If five percent of your local users become suppliers, that might be a large part of solving this future problem.

There is a house down the street from us where a previous owner had a turbine and solar panels. Unlike some homes, his panels were raised on a frame that would allow him to point them at the sun as it traveled through the sky. I always wanted to stop and ask him about these devices and never took the time.

Both technologies have improved over the years to a point where they are more efficient than they once were. Remember, I am speaking from sixty years of experience. I am a novice in my knowledge of how it works, not in the fact that it is useful.

On a recent trip, Cindy and I saw wind turbines in a hay field, and at other times we have seen the arrays of solar panels. I have also observed businesses and homes installing these devices on their buildings and properties to supply their electrical needs. I watch commercials about storage units that can be attached to maintain independence from electrical grids in power outages.

Let me mention factories that I called on, which had waste materials that they used to power generators to supply the requirements of not just the plants, but the neighborhoods around them. I’ve been at Evangel University’s and School of the Ozarks power stations and seen how these operate.

One of my customers in the 1990s made loads of money designing and building generators for those who wanted to be prepared in case the dire predictions associated with computers at the turn of this century came true. I spoke with him shortly before he retired to a farm where his family was ready to survive no matter what happened after December 1999.

I am making these statements to spark interest by our utility suppliers in encouraging individual investments as a way of increasing their power supply. Long-term contracts and government assistance might be used to reduce the costs for everyone involved.

Do a little research and explore the feasibility of these options. I failed to mention the methane plant I saw where a sawmill had dumped sawdust and woodchips for decades. This plant had been powering electricity for one community for over a year when it was pointed out to me late in the last century.

I Believe You

February 23, 2026

I want you to listen to this song by Megan Woods. It should speak to you even if you do not believe Him at this point in your life. Music is an excellent way for Jehovah to reach us. That is why He gave it to His people.

King David wrote songs. Our Bible calls them Psalms, and there are more than just what is in that book. Most of us know at least some of the Twenty-Third Psalm. It is the one that begins, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Remember it now? Look it up and read it.

Megan tells us at the opening of this song some things that we do not want to admit. We tell others that we are O.K. Do we really expect others to believe this lie? We can tell if someone says this that they are not fine. We are all lost at some point in our lives.

It is easier to doubt. I doubted it at one time in my life. People in my Church let me down. They fired our pastor, again. It wasn’t the first time they had disappointed me in the way they acted. These were Deacons in the Church. They should know better.

I dropped out of that body of believers. I was questioning Yahweh, I was refusing to believe them, not Him. I believe that He is fighting for me. At that time, I needed to have it proven to me, and they were not doing that for me. Later, a new pastor visited me and invited me to a class for college-age students.

I believed him even though I did not know him, because he came with one of my best friends and invited me to join that group. Because of his ministry, I changed my mind about what I was to do in my life. God showed me He wanted me to attend a different college. I believed Him.

I did not see what He had for me. I liked writing stories, and my story wasn’t finished. I followed His plot, not my own. I have doubts. Not Him, I have been unsure of myself, and if I was hearing what I thought I was being told. I’ve asked for confirmation and always received it when I was willing to listen.

Do you want to understand what you are being told? He wants you to listen to what Jesus said when He was here on this planet. I know people tell you that is a myth. Check it out for yourself. I have researched what is said about this man. He did live. He was murdered. He did nothing to deserve death. You know this happens.

He was God, He could have stopped it. He did not because the plan was for His life to be given for you and me. I got that when I was a kid, did you? Have you forgotten when you believed it? Trust Him again like I did when I was in college. He wants to be your savior and your guide.

We use the term, Lord. That just means that you are willing to follow what He tells you. Remember that Psalm, the one that is numbered twenty-three. He is your shepherd, just watch what he does and follow Him. It is that easy. Try it, you’ll like it.

Perfection

February 22, 2026

You have probably noticed it when you’ve read my columns. I am not perfect. I have more bad news for you. You aren’t either. Ready for the extremely awful revelation? We will never be perfect if we are on Earth. If we have a personal relationship with Jesus, He will make us perfect in His presence.

Do you get it? No one is what they can be. When we listen to Holy Spirit, we will do better than we are at this moment. That is not the best we can be. There is always room for improvement. The best way to grow is to realize this.

You ain’t there yet. Yes, I slipped into my native Ozarkian. Jesus spoke Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Since He is God, He could have used any known and unknown languages while he was here. He knew what people were thinking. Read the gospels. Was He ever surprised at situations?

The Sadducees asked about a woman who was married seven times, and they wanted to know who her husband would be at the resurrection. Jesus did not stutter when His answer was, “You do not understand.” (Luke 20:27-40) I often do not know what someone is saying.

God always knows what you are saying and what you really mean. My spelling and grammar check tries to correct some of the phrases I use. It is artificial intelligence. It was made by people. It does not know what Jehovah wants me to say to you at this moment.

AI cannot be programmed to speak for Yahweh. It does not have a soul or spirit. or body. AI isn’t even real. You do understand what the word artificial means, don’t you? It is another word for fake. Got it? You do not want to be a fraud. Be a real human being. Be willing to be wrong and admit it.

Life is not a mistake. While we live, we make mistakes. There is a difference. I can use artificial sweeteners, flavorings, or intelligence. They may help with certain things, or they will backfire and cause me even more trouble. You make the choice; you face the consequences.

Even the President of the United States makes mistakes and must deal with the consequences of his decisions. Did you notice that I did not use a capital “H” on that pronoun? I only use that for God. And he ain’t Him. Neither are you nor I.

Perfection can be obtained, but only when we are taken home to the presence of our Lord and Savior. If you know Jesus as many of us do, then you are trying to get better every day. If not, join us, and we will be perfect together someday with Him.

The writing process

February 21, 2026

Once again, I am up early. It is Sunday morning. The radio clock will come on in a few minutes. Cindy will start to arouse sometime after that and begin to get ready for church. When I got up, Essa, the cat, was all over me in bed. My brain was full of thoughts, and I was having trouble getting back to sleep.

So, I got up. This is my writing process. I know that many professional writers use different techniques from mine. Let’s establish this first. I am not now, and never have made my living from my writing. I write because I have a brain, and my way of exercising it is to express the things that enter my head in a printed form.

Someday this column may appear in some part of a book, if I choose to add it to one. That’s also part of my process. I will get up in a minute and let Biscuit, our dog, go outside to do his business. I am not one of those writers who can go into my office, lock the door, and spend hours at the keyboard.

I have a life like most of you. Does it bother you when you read a book on writing and the author tells you that you must spend a set amount of time alone without distractions? It does me. I’ve never been able to do that. I’ve always had a family. Cindy, the girls, and the animals come first. Then I can write when I have a few minutes.

Currently, I have about seven of these columns in a queue to be published on Doiloigroup.org on a certain date. I’ve developed this technique over the years I have published these columns. There are over a hundred columns and at least seven or more books in various files on this computer.

Let me revise those numbers. These files may be well into the hundreds. They are not all on this laptop. Some are on paper, a separate hard drive, or in notebooks I used before I had a computer. When I have time, I review these ideas wherever I have them. That is also part of my process.

Yes, it is an eclectic or odd way of doing this thing we call writing. I’ve been a writer for over sixty years. I learned to put letters together to form words, and then sentences, paragraphs, and articles. These have sometimes been put into books. You can read these books as I put them together in my premium materials. That will cost you money to see. Why? Because I want to know how serious you are about reading and learning from me.

As I asked God what He wanted me to do, He explained that my ministry in the business world is now over. He wants that service to be translated back into my career as an author. My books will not be published by traditional companies. So He had me start Douloigroup.org.

Other authors do not want you to see how hard it is for them to create. I want you to realize that it is not easy for any of us to do this thing we call writing. I told you I would be interrupted and must come back. I was wrong because, at this point, I have been composing these words for almost thirty minutes.

This is unusual for me. I wrote this column to encourage those of you with busy lives who have delayed calling yourselves writers because you have not yet been published. Not all of us need to have books printed. I decided years ago to just write and publish when I could, and now, I do. Try it, you’ll like it.

Walk With a Servant