#inform-video-player-1 .inform-embed { margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 20px; }
#inform-video-player-2 .inform-embed { margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 20px; }
Jonathon Scarberry was high on pills and driving drunk when he accidentally veered into Jackson Lake, around an hour southeast of Atlanta.
“The car went down 30 feet underwater, and my buddy undid my seat belt but he couldn’t pull me out,” he said. “He got out and said the next thing you know, I floated to the top unconscious.”
That was in 2003, yet the flirtation with death still was not enough to shake Jonathon out of his addiction to pills and, later, crack cocaine. Last month, I read the “CliffsNotes” version of his testimony in the newsletter of Providence Ministries, an outreach in Dalton that provides food for the hungry, housing for the homeless and rehabilitation and hope for those struggling with substance abuse dependence. He just passed his 20th month of being clean from drugs and totally sober, and agreed to share his story. It didn’t take long to discern he’d been dealt a hard hand in life.
“I was removed from the abusive home of my mother at 1 year old,” he began. “Then in a foster home, I was physically abused by the couple who became my adoptive parents, and went to school with welts on my arms from being whipped with switches. So I was removed from that home.”
Jonathon was shuffled from foster home to foster home till the age of 18, even enduring molestation from two older foster kids at one stop. That was swept under the rug, and the next foster family wanted to adopt him until they found out about the sexual abuse — they felt he was damaged goods.
Through counseling, he now knows that lack of acceptance and stability were root causes of his issues. However, life was about to take a turn.
“I ended up in an orphanage in Ohio at age 16, and a case worker’s brother was a preacher. All the kids got to go home and see their families on the weekends, but I didn’t have nowhere to go. So my case worker felt sorry for me and took me with her when she went to see her brother on the weekend,” said Jonathon. “The preacher and his wife liked me, so I moved in with them when I was 17.”
Jonathon Scarberry graduated from Marion Harding High School in Marion, Ohio, and then matriculated at David Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. Things were finally going smoothly until he began to pursue work. Hanging out with co-workers, he got drunk for the first time and then smoked marijuana.
“It was acceptance,” he explained. “I was around people that accepted me. I had moved to Nashville to test the waters, to see if I could make it on my own. It was my first time being alone and not having anybody to tell me what to do. But it was college life — going to school full time, working full time and partying full time. I got introduced to crack cocaine and that’s when everything started going south. Because I didn’t have a care in the world (after using), and I was accepted by more people.”
Then came times of “chasing the high” when the drugs wore off.
“That wasn’t a positive thing,” Jonathon revealed. “Once you start getting high on that stuff and you run out of money, you gotta have more. I got to the point where I ended up dropping out of college after a year because my schoolwork just went out the window. When I got hooked on crack cocaine, that was what I lived for. I was working two full-time jobs, Monday through Thursday, and was off Friday till Sunday. And by Friday night, I was broke. So I ended up getting a part-time job working 11 hours each day on Friday and Saturday at a service station, just to support my habit — and I was still going into debt.”
After just over three months, his body gave out and he fainted while taking an order from a customer in a fast-food restaurant. He had to give up one of the jobs, and even tried moving back in with his birth mother to try and get away from crack cocaine. But it didn’t work out, and he was out on the street again before moving in with his girlfriend and her mother. Jonathan was arrested for stealing cigarettes, and arrests for drug possession and a DUI followed.
In 1995, Jonathon drove to Georgia with a friend and eventually got “clean” (from using drugs) for 11 years. However, he had gotten married but the relationship was in shambles. He started hanging around with the wrong crowd again and was introduced to “ice,” a potent form of methamphetamine.
“Doing dope was the only way I knew how to deal with life’s struggles, and I’d just given up,” he said. “I kinda went downhill from there and hit rock bottom. I didn’t really care if I woke up the next day or not. I was still grieving over my marriage and was stuck in a hole. My lifestyle was covering a lot of pain from my childhood, but it had gotten to the point where the drugs weren’t even helping that anymore. I wanted to go to rehab, because I knew if I went to prison I’d be back at the same place when I got out, having nothing.”
In Walton County, a judge noted Jonathon’s possession charges and DUI and told him he could choose jail or go to rehab. While incarcerated, he had a friend put $50 on his jail tab.
“I took $30 of it and kept calling rehabs — Providence was the second rehab I called,” Jonathon said. “Tony Pridgen (the intake coordinator) told me about the blood work (required) and the steps, but I kept calling around like that was a failure call. But for some reason, it got put in my mind to call back. And Tony said, ‘I already told you two months ago what you need to do.’ I said, ‘So you’re saying I’m accepted?’ He said, ‘Get your blood work done and get the judge to sign off on it, and we’ll see you.’”
Jonathon said Pridgen “jumped through hoops and didn’t give up on me” to get him into the Providence program.
“It was God’s will for me to be here, and he used Tony to get me here,” he said while being interviewed in the Providence Ministries chapel. “I really wanted a faith-based rehab because I knew it would take God to get me through it.”
Jonathon, who turns 50 in May, was asked if there was a turning point in the program when he began to have hope.
“One thing that helps at Providence is that you’re not judged here,” he replied. “Brother Roy (Johnson, ministry CEO) and Miss Pat (his wife) — and all the staff — love and accept you for who you are. You’re not defined by what you’ve done or where you’ve been. That means a lot. Celebrate Recovery (a faith-based support group) has become a big thing for me, too.
“I can’t control the uncontrollable, but I can control my actions and reactions.
“That’s one thing I’ve really gotten from the program here. Giving everything to God since I’ve been here, and allowing him to have control of everything, has given me the inner peace that I have today. I know God is the reason I’m still here, because God pulled me out of the car that night.”
So what is it like being clean and sober for Resurrection Sunday, also known as Easter?
“It’s interesting you asked that because I just watched ‘The Passion of the Christ’ (a 2004 movie) for the first time, and I was speechless,” he said. “It was powerful, and reminded me how grateful and thankful I am for what Jesus did for me — for us — to die on the cross to forgive us of our sins. To have that relationship with God, through Jesus, means everything to me.
“Philippians 4:13 — ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ — is my life verse.”
Mark Millican is a former staff writer for the Dalton Daily Citizen.
#inform-video-player-3 .inform-embed { margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 20px; }