As the story was being told this morning at a Springfield business, it was reminiscent of the old radio program that was broadcast on KICK radio on 1340 on the AM dial here. It had a Christian twist to it.

The story takes place in a local long-term care facility. A friend’s wife is there for recuperation after surgery. As most patients do, she was craving outside food. Her husband, obligingly, delivered carryout chicken to her room one evening. A neighbor down the hall smelled the fried chicken and came to the room to ask to purchase a couple of pieces of the delightfully fragrant food. Hospital food smells, but not like that.

My friend continued to add extra chicken or other goodies to be sure there was extra for this lady. She gave him the name of Chicken Man. I asked if he was familiar with the radio program by that title. He was not originally from Springfield and had never heard of the show. I gave a brief description of it.

The point I want to make is that we can be kind and gracious to others in many ways. It does not take much to be a special person in the lives of folks that we encounter every day. They may need no more than a smile or a kind word.

Is this not what servanthood means? We are all told by Jesus to serve our neighbors. That’s what my friend did for the lady in the nursing home who was his wife’s friend. You should look around and see a need that you can supply. Be careful, though.

I read a story of a boy whose father was called to school for his bad behavior. This was unusual for this father. When he got there, he found out that his son had given half of the pizza he had bought for lunch to a friend who did not want the cheese sandwich he was offered. When he was caught doing this, his pizza was taken from him, and both were thrown away, and he was sent to the office.

Sounds stupid, doesn’t it? I think so, too. We should be teaching children to be helpful to each other, especially in our schools. There is no good reason for an adult disposing of a generous child’s lunch as punishment. This was posted on Facebook as a true story. Hopefully, that is some of the false news our President tells us about.

The story ended with the father paying the delinquent lunch account of the other student and encouraging others to do the same for those who might be having this type of problem at their schools. I know others who work in schools or have kids there who do the same thing when they hear of a situation where they can assist.

Why not become this kind of Chicken Man in one of the small ways that you can? The thing I remember most about this radio show was that they always said, “Chicken man, he’s everywhere, he’s everywhere.” I think we should all strive to be like my friend Chicken Man so that this slogan is once again true.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger