Like everyone else, I started out life as a baby. I ate, slept, and pooped my diapers. My mother would add that I screamed a lot for no good reason. They called that the colic. Today I am pushing seventy very hard. I can do much more than I once did and have learned what it is to be retired.

The problem is that most days I am simply tired from sunrise to sunset. It takes little to wear me out. I’ve always wanted to advance myself. I remember the books my older brothers brought home from school. Bud was in first grade and Kenny was in third grade. Kenny’s books were not much more difficult than Bud’s.

I learned this as I listened to them read and my first older brother studied his alphabet. He started with Dick and Jane books. I had those down two years later when I began first grade. That year my brothers were in the third and fourth grades respectively. Our oldest brother had to take the third grade a second time because of his reading.

Life had many choices. It also included tragedies. Mom lost a baby between Vanessa and I. I did not know the word miscarriage then. Dad finally had his daughter four years after me. President Kennedy was assassinated. I learned that word the hard way. My grandparents all died by the time I was ten.

In the fifth grade, I had no choice about studying Spanish. That was required in our school. How hard you worked at it was up to you. My best friend Rob and I did not agree completely on this. When we went to Junior high, I took Spanish, but he did not. That was where I met Vern. We took Spanish III as freshmen in high school.

Being in Spanish at Pipkin meant that I was not in the English class that met simultaneously. Those students produced our school newspaper. I learned Spanish because a good reporter needed more languages than English. Latin and French were the only other choices available in High School.

I chose my classes to prepare me for college. I selected the Missouri University Journalism School as a high school freshman. I had trouble speaking in front of crowds. Water Cronkite did not. I enrolled in speech during my sophomore year to overcome that deficiency.

I also had a typing class that year. And chemistry. That was just for fun. Junior year was when I had Journalism I and I was the feature editor my senior year. This was a disappointment. I wanted the editor position. Mrs. Backlund saw that my strength was in more creative writing.

I did not receive a scholarship to MU that year. I did receive a scholarship to Southwest Missouri State University in my hometown. My plans changed. Two years at SMSU as a creative writing major and then at J school at UMC. SMS had no journalism program.

During my sophomore year in college, my plans changed again. God called me to full-time Christian ministry. I thought that meant I would be a pastor. My three years in Speech and debate would be advantageous there. When the acceptance letter to Journalism school came, I ignored it. Instead, I transferred to Southwest Baptist College thirty miles north of Springfield in Bolivar, Missouri.

Two years there and I would go to seminary. That was not God’s plan either. My degree in Religion meant something to a few people in the business world. I knew nothing about workplace ministry then. I spent over forty years as a salesman, purchasing agent, and manager in many companies. At each position, my heart and ears were open to co-workers.

When you retire, everything changes. I can no longer be in the workforce due to health issues. How do you minister when there are no co-workers to serve? That is where these columns come into play. My desire to write has stayed with me. Now you are my congregation.

Continue to follow where I am going as I proceed to the place where God is leading me. It may be a winding road. I hope it will not be a roller coaster ride. I get sick on those.

©Copyright 2023 by Charles Kensinger