Learning to Live One Day at a Time
Some people experience faith through dramatic turning points—moments that divide life into a clear “before” and “after.” For Lena Bryant, faith has grown more quietly. Not through one earth-shaking event, but through years of learning to trust God in ordinary life: friendships, work conversations, unanswered prayers, and the slow realization that God’s plan may look very different from what she once imagined.
Today, Lena describes her relationship with God with a single word: hungry. “I’m hungry for Scripture,” she says. “Hungry to keep learning.” But that hunger took time to grow.
Growing Up in Faith
Lena grew up in southern Illinois near St. Louis, the youngest of four siblings. Her parents came to faith shortly before and shortly after she was born, so Christianity was part of the environment she grew up in. Family has always been important, but even though Lena grew up in church, her early experiences of faith were complicated.
The church culture she experienced as a child often felt rigid and legalistic. Instead of drawing her closer to God, it sometimes made faith feel heavy. “It felt oppressive,” she explains. “Like there were all these rules.” Lena believed in God, but the relationship felt distant.
That would eventually change—but not until she stepped outside the environment she had always known.
A New Chapter
In 2000, Lena moved to the Chicago area with her best friend to help start a church plant in Lake Zurich. The experience changed everything. For the first time, Lena began to experience a different kind of church culture—one that felt marked more by grace than pressure.
“It just felt like freedom,” she says. Part of that freedom came simply from growing up and living on her own. But it also came from encountering a community where faith felt alive rather than restrictive. “I started to grow,” Lena says. “Learning more and more about God.”
Over time, she became deeply involved in church life, building relationships and serving in practical ways. One place she naturally gravitated toward was the greeting team. “I love greeting,” she explains. “It’s how you meet people.”
For her, those small interactions matter. “You never know who you’re going to meet,” she says. Sometimes it’s someone new to the church. Sometimes it’s someone with a story she’s heard about but never met. Every greeting is an opportunity for connection; something that has always come naturally to Lena.
A Difficult Season
Like many people, Lena’s life hasn’t followed the path she once expected. She married young. Lena describes that season as difficult and complicated. Financial stress, emotional strain, and other challenges slowly took their toll in the 9 years of her marriage. In the years that followed, Lena had to rebuild many parts of her life—housing, friendships, routines, and spiritual rhythms.
While Lena never had children of her own, she found other ways to pour love into younger lives—especially as an aunt and godmother. “I feel like I’m a really good aunt,” she says. And she means it.
Finding Community Again
After her divorce, Lena realized something important. She had plenty of acquaintances—but very few close friends she could truly depend on. “I realized I had girlfriends,” she says, “but not really close friends.” That realization pushed her to reconnect intentionally with people she trusted.
She re-established friendships with three women who became a strong support system during the years that followed. Even now, they remain some of her closest friends. Interestingly, many of Lena’s friendships have formed through connections like this—friends of friends who slowly become lifelong companions. “It’s something I’ve always done,” she says. “I connect deeply with people.” That gift for connection would eventually lead her to Center Church.
Finding a Church Home
After years of attending Heritage Church in Lake Zurich, Lena began searching for a church closer to where she and her best friend now lived. She visited several places. Then one Sunday she decided to try Center Church. “I walked in and just knew,” she says.
Part of the reason was simple familiarity. She recognized people from previous church connections. But it was also the environment. “The people were welcoming,” Lena says. “Everyone was so friendly.”
It didn’t take long before she began serving—once again choosing the greeting team. Greeting people at the door isn’t just about hospitality for Lena. It’s about helping people feel seen. It’s about remembering that walking into a church for the first time can be intimidating. And it’s about creating space for relationships to begin.
In fact, Lena intentionally arrives early on Sundays so she can connect with people from both services—making sure she has the chance to meet new faces walking through the door.
Faith in Everyday Life
Some of the most meaningful moments of Lena’s faith journey haven’t happened inside church walls at all. They’ve happened at work. One of Lena’s coworkers began exploring faith a few years ago after going through a difficult season in life. As he started asking questions about God, he naturally turned to Lena. They began having regular conversations about Scripture, prayer, and life. Sometimes he jokes that they’re “having church” in Lena’s office. At one point, he even called her his John the Baptist. Lena laughs when she remembers it. “I told him, ‘Do not compare me to him!’” But she understands what he meant. God has used her willingness to listen, ask questions, and talk honestly about faith to encourage someone who was searching. Their conversations often challenge Lena to consider her own spiritual health.
A Growing Hunger
In the last several years, Lena has noticed something changing in her spiritual life. Her curiosity about Scripture has grown deeper. The parts of the Bible she once found confusing—especially the Old Testament—have begun to come alive. When Center Church spent time reading through the Old Testament together, something began to shift. The stories she once skimmed over started connecting in new ways. Instead of feeling “old” and having a hard time understanding, Lena began to feel connected to the larger story and see how the NT is rooted in the OT and part of one story!
“I’m having all these lightbulb moments,” she says. The more Lena read, the more she began to see how the Old Testament and New Testament are deeply connected—how the promises, prophecies, and patterns of the Old Testament point forward to Jesus.
Learning Contentment
Today, Lena lives with a perspective she didn’t have in earlier years. She use to believe happiness would come through certain milestones—marriage, children, a particular future. But life unfolded differently.
Instead of bitterness, Lena has discovered a surprising sense of peace. “I would love to have a husband someday,” she says. “But it’s not required.” If marriage happens again, she’ll welcome it. If it doesn’t, she trusts that God’s plan for her life is still good. “I’m living today as today is,” Lena says.
For Lena, this is an intentional way to live life. She has learned to accept the things she cannot control, focus on what God has given her today, and trust Him in the bigger story. And in that trust, she has discovered something beautiful: contentment and deep joy. Not the perfect life she once imagined—but a peaceful life rooted in faith, friendship, and daily trust in God.
Lena’s story is still being written, but one thing has remained constant: as God has worked in her life, He has continued to grow in her a heart for serving others. For Lena, faith isn’t only something to believe—it’s something to live out in practical ways, noticing needs and responding with generosity and care.
This year, Lena will be helping lead Center Church’s Canned Food Drive, giving our church family an opportunity to serve our neighbors together. We’ll kick off the drive at the Chili Cook-Off, collecting canned and nonperishable food to help meet tangible needs in the community around us. It’s a simple way each of us can participate—one can, one bag, one act of generosity at a time.
