BREAKING THE SHACKLES OF SIN: Clinkenbeard finds a new path to travel

by Todd Brooks

Kale Clinkenbeard discovered prison can be far more than just four walls of a jail cell.

It was during that time in prison though that now the 28-year-old truly discovered what freedom was. It wasn’t freedom from 23 hours a day in a cramped jail cell with a cellmate, it was freedom from the bondage of sin that put him in prison in the first place.

Clinkenbeard does not shy away from talking about his past, in fact, it is a turning point in his life.

“It’s not my story,” Clinkenbeard says. “It’s Jesus’ story.”

The wrong path

Kale Clinkenbeard grew up in Comanche where he was active in school sports. He went to church but was more interested in playing basketball than spiritual things.

“When I was in high school, I definitely had my head screwed on straight,” Clinkenbeard says. “I maybe partied every now and then, nothing major.”

That began when he went off to college. He started out at St. Gregory’s on a track scholarship. He dropped out and went to the University of Oklahoma for a semester where he would get in trouble with the law.

“When I went to college, I started hanging out with some guys that on the surface looked like good guys. I mean they were biomedical science majors,” Clinkenbeard says.

Under the surface, though, he discovered some of his friends had addiction issues. The next thing he knew, he had addiction issues of his own.

“It kind of just took off,” Clinkenbeard says. “It got to the point where I was never sober and then I started doing stuff to feed my habit and it wound me up in the situation I was in for first-degree robbery.”

It was not the way he grew up.

“I grew up in church, but it got to the point where I kind of just strayed away from God and got to the point where I didn’t know if I really believed in him,” Clinkenbeard says. “When I was in prison, it got to the point where I started feeling like there was something missing. There was an overwhelming feeling of loneliness. I mean, I had friends and stuff. In hindsight, it was the Lord chasing me down.”

He knew he was missing something.

“I got to the point where I prayed a prayer,” Clinkenbeard says. “I said, God if you’re Buddha, show me. If you are Allah, show me. If you are Jesus Christ, show me.”
He was in rehab before he went to prison. One day he was playing cards when someone he had seen on a daily basis in the pod but never spoken to, stopped at his table and invited him to church.

“And I was like, Okay,’” Clinkenbeard says. “He took about five steps, turned around and said, ‘God is real.’ And I was like you’re speaking to me on my terms now.”

Finding the Right Path

Then when he had been transferred to the county jail to wait for his next stop, he picked up a book that did not have a cover on it and did not have the slightest idea what it was.

He found out it was a copy of the inspirational novel, “The Shack.”

“I had no idea what it was about, but I just started reading it and found out it’s about Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit,” Clinkenbeard says.“I prayed, ‘if you’re Jesus Christ, the Messiah and he died and was resurrected for our sins, I’m going to believe that.”

He was then transferred to serve his term at the prison in Lexington.

“There you’re in maximum security, you have like two pair of boxer shorts and there is no air conditioning,” Clinkenbeard says. “You are locked down 23 hours a day. There’s supposed to be no literature, but there’s one book where I’m at, a New Testament.”

One of his fellow prisoners had possession of the book. He had spoken to him a few times, but never asked him about it or mentioned it.

“And then a few times, we got to walking together, and one time he brings it out, and says, ‘Do you want this, man?’ Yeah, yeah, I’ll take it.”

With nothing else to do while being locked down, he began to read the book.

“I start in Romans and it’s pretty big for me,” Clinkenbeard says. “I just got to reading it and the Holy Spirit began to teach me. It says in Scripture that he’s our teacher. And he taught me things that day that have never changed since.”

His change wasn’t immediate. He continued to deal in contraband like cell phones and cigarettes, which are forbidden in prisons.

But, he kept reading and kept growing and began to change.

“I’ve been different ever since,” Clinkenbeard says. “I still struggle with anxiety and depression and self-image a little bit, but now I have somewhere to take it. I’ve been sober now for six years and one month. Now I don’t even have a desire for drugs. I don’t even think about it. It grosses me out.”

He has rebuilt trust within his family and restored friendships with people.

“They would message me and be like, ‘Man, you’re way different,’ and I would tell them about Jesus Christ,” Clinkenbeard says. “It was like I was in a million little pieces - pieces that seemed like they were impossible to put back together. And he put them back together. I have that underlying peace and joy now.”

He has learned much about compassion.

“I have a love for people that nobody likes. I have compassion for them now,” Clinkenbeard says. “I used to be the complete opposite and make fun of them. (Jesus Christ) is the one who started it. I was the one who felt emptiness and he chased me down and pulled me in. I still have good days and bad days, but if I sit back and look at the bigger picture of what he’s done for me. I have friends that really care about me. I have all kinds of opportunities. Naturally good people gravitate toward me whereas in the past bad people gravitated toward me.”

Clinkenbeard says he realizes many of his problems stemmed from pride and when he realized that, it made a big difference in who he was.

“Many people will look at me and say drugs were the problem, but it’s not, it was pride,” Clinkenbeard says. “(God) has shown me it’s a lifelong journey to keep that in check. Galatians says if we are crucified with Christ, I no longer live but Christ who lives in me that controls my life.”

He has started a Facebook/YouTube ministry called “Kingdom Kinetics,” that he and his girlfriend Shilo Thompson host as a video podcast.

“This was something that was really important to me,” Clinkenbeard says. “I was taught in youth group a lot not to sin and to take your relationship with Jesus Christ seriously.”

He felt like if he wasn’t going to be able to meet up to those standards that he perceived he was being taught then why even bother trying.

“It got to the point where I just felt like the Lord was telling me just throw some seed out there, I’ll give it the increase,” Clinkenbeard says. “We are gonna try to just teach the Bible. We have a passion for youth because that’s where I went wayward. And we just really just want to encourage people in Jesus and let them feel loved.”

He says it is a very practical approach to growing spiritually, not only learning about what the Bible says but learning to turn what you learn into action.

“Kinetics is energy in motion, so how do you apply the kingship of Jesus in the motion of life?” Clinkenbeard says.

The purpose of the video podcast is to delve deeper into the scripture a little more than what someone might hear on a Sunday morning.

Clinkenbeard got out of prison last August and works at the family grocery store, Delbert’s, in Comanche.

“The community has been great, and so supportive,” Clinkenbeard says. “When you’re from a small town where everyone knows you, you’re scared of how people might treat you, but they treat me like I had never even been to prison.”

His video podcast can be found by searching for “Kingdom Kinetics” on YouTube and Facebook.