How Covid-19 Led to an Encounter with Jesus

There is a hunger underneath almost everything we do: the hunger to be known. For most of my life, I chased it in the wrong direction, working to be liked, accepted, and embraced by the people around me. It wasn’t until 2020 that God reached into my heart and gave me the only thing that ever truly satisfied it: to be known by Him, and to live my life fully for Him. If you have ever felt that ache and not known where to take it, I wrote this for you.

I was blessed to grow up in a loving, Christian home where I attended church regularly. I was raised in the Wesleyan faith, which I love to this day, though I later realized the way it was taught leaned heavily on man-made rules. I honor my parents by saying I know they raised us the only way they thought was best, because this was all they knew. I honor them for teaching me and instructing me to love and serve Jesus always. Thank you, Mom and Dad.

As a young child, I was a very sensitive, spiritual little girl. I was always in tune with the Holy Spirit and hold fond memories of sitting in church and experiencing the presence of God. I knew what it felt like to walk closely to Jesus and had many encounters with Him growing up. My parents were told that I had a “glow” about me, and I know it was Jesus shining through me.

I had no desire to live a life of sin and rebellion, and I did everything I knew to do to honor and serve Jesus with my whole heart. I was so focused on Kingdom living at that time.

But in my teen years, my heart began to shift. I faced ridicule for not following the
crowd, and was called a “goody two-shoes” who wouldn’t listen to bad music or watch the movies my cousins did. Little by little, in a series of small choices rather than one big one, I started trading who I was for who would be liked. People-pleasing hardened into a stronghold, and my parents grew so worried they sent me away to school for my senior year. For a long time after that, I was lost and broken.

God was faithful through all of it. I met my husband, Doran, at a tiny Bible college, and we’ll soon celebrate 28 years of marriage. We raised our two kids in worship and youth ministry, moved across the country more than once, and walked through a frightening health crisis when Graves’ disease threw my body into “thyroid storm.” There was real fruit and real victory in those years. But if I’m honest, I was so busy raising my babies and keeping up appearances that I never let God fully heal my past. I had tasted freedom. I wasn’t yet living in it.

The Year Everything Changed

Then came 2020. Like everyone, I’ll never forget the year COVID swept the world, but for me, it became the year I was changed forever. I had started caring for the newborn of two first-time parents, a federal prosecutor and a defense attorney, an atheist and an agnostic who had, in a God-story all its own, hired a Christian nanny. The world felt fragile, and the baby’s frightened mama asked me to quarantine completely whenever I wasn’t in their home. That included staying away from church. I would make a different choice today, but at the time, I felt deeply called to this family, so I said yes.

So I built a little corner in our bedroom: a chair, a cozy blanket, a lamp, a shelf of books. That corner became holy ground. For three months, I read nothing but the Word and anointed authors, listened to nothing but sermons and worship, and did what I came to call “Holy Spirit school.” I was starving for more of Jesus, and the more I learned of Him, the more I wanted.

What followed was unlike anything I had ever experienced. I was given two peace-filled visions. I experienced angelic visitations and woke to Heavenly music. The Lord began cutting away everything that had hindered me, exposing the places I needed to forgive, repent, and release. It was a Refiner’s Fire, not always sunshine and roses, but I had never known Jesus so closely.

Acts 2:17 — “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”

That was the season the chains finally broke. I learned what spiritual warfare really is and how to take authority in the name of Jesus, and I came to understand something I’d missed my whole life: we can have as much or as little of God as we want. He longs for deep connection with His children, and everyone has access to Him if we’re willing to be refined, purged, and made new. That year, I became the little girl with one desire again.

To be known by God, and to live my life fully for Him.

It is now 2026, and that desire has never left me. I walk in the miraculous now in ways I once only read about, and I wouldn’t trade it for the whole world; knowing His peace and Presence is life to me.

If you take away one thing from my story, let it be this: the same access to Jesus that I have is yours. Every one of us is invited. Seek Him earnestly, with your whole heart, for as long as it takes, and He will fill your life until it overflows.