The Voice in the Back Room: How Jackie Johnson Learned to Say Whose She Is

Jackie Johnson was covering a register so a cashier could take lunch. It was not her job that day. She was the store manager. But a prompting kept interrupting the routine: Go to the back room.

She kept scanning groceries. The voice got stronger. Finally, she says, she heard it plainly, and she handed off the register and went.

What she found in the back room changed how she understands faith at work.

A Faith She Has Always Known

Jackie, founder and brand strategist at Wildling Dreams, does not describe her faith as a conversion story. It is closer to the air she grew up breathing. Her father served in youth ministry and led worship. Her mother ran an outreach in the community called Extended Hands. “I just remember being at church every day,” she says.

“I know people say, ‘Oh, I grew up in the church.’ I only knew that. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I’ve known that since I was two years old.”

What has changed over the years, she says, is how that foundation has been tested and strengthened by trials. The foundation itself has not moved.

The Moment in the Back Room

She was about 32 when it happened, managing a Natural Grocers Vitamin Cottage store and returning to general management after years in fitness and nutrition. In the back room, she found a young assistant manager, around 22 or 23, in a moment of crisis and close to harming himself.

Jackie is candid that she had no plan. “All I could say was, ‘Jesus loves you, and I love you,’” she recalls. “And all the other things that I said, that wasn’t me. I knew it wasn’t me.” He let go. She held him while he wept.

Then he asked her something she has not forgotten: Why are you so different? Why are you always kind to me? Why are you always loving to me? He did not know God, but the qualities he named were the fruits of the Spirit.

That is where the story turns, and where Jackie says she was convicted. She had been serving faithfully, but quietly.

“God was saying, ‘Even though you’re not saying my name, you’re showing my character.’ I was being kind, I was helpful, I was serving, because we’re supposed to be servant leaders. But I wasn’t professing who I belong to.”

The lesson was not to trade action for words. It was to let her light shine through both.

The ending carried a lighter confirmation. Jackie reported the incident to HR, since corporate policy says to call the hotline rather than step in. Both HR leaders told her they had always known she was a believer. She says what she did was fine with them, and they took it to the company’s owners. She checked on the young man herself and made sure he got home safely.

If you or someone you know is struggling, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available by call or text in the U.S.

A Business Built on Paying Attention

Jackie has started businesses before. Early on, she admits, the motive was simple: she was good at it and could make money. What anchors Wildling Dreams today is a different foundation: faith, family, and service.

The consulting practice began during COVID, while she was building an herbal brand and a beauty brand. Through economic development and political contacts, other business owners kept asking for the kind of insight she shared at city council meetings and in one-on-ones. One owner came to her with training problems, unclear SOPs, and a suspicion of theft. Jackie had the experience to help.

“Even Wildling Dreams Consulting was a God-sent opportunity, especially when I needed it financially during COVID,” she says. “I can’t even take credit for opening my consulting, because it really wasn’t me either.”

Her interviewer offered a gentle correction: she was paying attention, and she responded. Opportunities that come from God still require someone willing to notice them and say yes.

Staying Aligned When You’re High Energy

Jackie describes herself as high energy, which makes discernment essential. Her safeguard is simple and consistent.

First, she starts every day in devotion. “If my heart’s not right and my heart’s not aligned, nothing I’m gonna do after that is gonna work.” She treats it as the first fruits of her day.

Second, she sets her goals for the year and prays over them. When a new idea arrives, she tests it against two things: her spiritual alignment and those prayed-over goals.

“I’m like, ‘That’s a great idea, but that wasn’t what I prayed about. That’s not what I have peace about, so I shouldn’t go in that direction.’”

The Two Laptops and a Cell Phone Mom

The sharpest correction came from home. Jackie says she was known as the “two laptops and a cell phone mom.” She was teaching other people’s children and mentoring other adults, and she felt convicted that her own sons were not getting the same zeal.

During COVID, her son told her he liked this version of her, “the mom that is present.” She had believed she was always there. He helped her see that she was physically in the room but mentally elsewhere. “You don’t have split attention,” he said.

Most of us know a version of this. We can serve everyone well and still miss the people closest to us.

When Money Starts Driving the Calendar

Jackie says she sees a troubling shift in business culture, even among people who say their faith comes first. Someone starts out on fire for God, then hits a dip in revenue and forgets who they serve. They start taking opportunities that are not on their goals, that they do not align with spiritually, and that do not give them peace.

“It’s becoming money driven, not people driven,” she says. Her answer is a biblical code of doing business, with words and actions that match.

“Will you show up even if it’s for one? That was Jesus’s example. The power of talking to one person, iron sharpening iron, and you leaving encouraged, is way more important than lifting up our gifts, our talents, and our pocketbook.”

She is not dismissing financial goals. She is warning against letting the P&L decide who gets a phone call. Her reminder is that God promised daily bread, and that access to people and resources exists so we can serve Him more, not ourselves.

The Stewardship Nobody Talks About

Jackie’s most unusual insight concerns gifts. Churches teach financial stewardship, she says, but rarely the stewardship of talents.

She speaks from experience. For a season, she believes, she lost abilities she had once relied on because she had misused them. “The Holy Spirit took them away,” she says. Later, they returned.

“Thank you, Lord, for taking them away, because if they weren’t used in your way, I was leading people astray. But thank you for giving them back so I can steward them in a new way.”

She offers this without polish. “I’m not trying to act like I’ve always done it right,” she says. That honesty is part of why her story lands.

Monday Morning Takeaways

Jackie’s story suggests a few practices any of us can start this week:

Begin with devotion before the inbox. Give the first part of the day to the Lord, then plan.

Pray over your goals, then use them as a filter. Before saying yes to an opportunity, ask whether it matches what you prayed about and whether you have peace about it.

Let your words match your actions. Kindness opens the door. Be ready to say where it comes from.

Audit your presence. Ask someone close to you whether you are fully there when you are in the room.

Show up for one. Take the call that does not move the numbers.

Even Jackie’s recent return to podcasting, she says, was no accident. She had been telling God she needed to get back to it, and then an invitation arrived. “I don’t believe in coincidences,” she says. “God was like, ‘I’m gonna give you a little taste. What are you gonna do with it?’ And I responded immediately.”

That may be the question for all of us. God is already placing needs and invitations in our path, and the question is whether we will notice them and respond.