Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee addresses the 2026 National Prayer Breakfast Feb. 5. – BP Photo
WASHINGTON – Attendees at the 74th annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington Feb. 5 heard a moving address on persevering through tragedy and remembering the brevity of life from keynote speaker Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
Lee’s address followed brief remarks from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who both spoke of God’s sovereign hand on the nation.
President Donald Trump also gave a long, seemingly off-the-cuff speech in which he called out political enemies but also spoke of the nation’s religious heritage and his efforts to secure religious liberty in the U.S. and around the world.
Trump also addressed the recent disruption by protestors at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minn., calling the incident a “trampling” of the First Amendment and commending Attorney General Pam Bondi for overseeing the arrest of nine individuals involved.
Gov. Lee had not been the scheduled speaker for the breakfast, having only learned the day before that he would be needed. He used the unexpected opportunity to tell the story of how tragedy changed his life and his faith.
“I heard it said that … there are days in our lives that can be described by a simple sentence,” Lee said. “Then there’s other days that chapters are written about.”
A day in late July 2000 was one in which “chapters were written in the story of my life,” Lee said. It was the day his first wife was killed in an accident at their home.
“I lived a life most men dream of living,” Lee said. “Beautiful wife, beautiful kids, beautiful home, sprawling farm, prosperous business, loved God with all my heart.
“On that July afternoon, I drove home from work, and I saw my son fishing and my other son playing, and my daughter was on a mission trip. And my 4-year-old was … on a horse with my wife. And I drove up the drive of my home and thought about the fact that I must be the most blessed man ever.”
A few minutes later, Lee’s idyllic life was shattered when he heard his 4-year-old screaming and ran to find his wife lifeless on the ground.
“That day in my life, my life took a very dark turn,” Lee said.
In the days that followed, Lee’s family was consumed by grief. His eldest daughter attempted to take her own life. She survived “miraculously,” Lee said, but the trauma for the family was “overwhelming.” His business began to fail.
A few months after his wife’s death, Lee was sitting in the family burial grounds on his property, awaiting the delivery of the stone marker for his wife’s grave. The men showed up, erected the monument and left.
“On the bottom (of the marker) was the day she was born and the day she died,” he recalled. “And I stood there looking at this, and it was very surreal. It is funny, isn’t it? How life will take you places and you will find yourself in a place you thought you might never be.
“I knew that I would have a tombstone right there beside her. Might be 40 days, might be 40 years. And as I stood there contemplating that … I had this thought that went through my brain – I wonder what she would say to me standing right here. I wonder what she’s doing. I know she’s still alive, more alive than ever.
“And then the thought came to me – what she would say is what God would say and is saying: There are very few things in life that matter, and we should be about them.”
As he left her grave that day, Lee said, he didn’t know what the future would hold, but he knew that God would show him how to move forward. The experience caused his faith to grow in new ways.
“[God] became real to me like He had never been,” Lee said. “Oh, I had known Him, but now I began to know Him in a way that I’d never known Him before. He became a healer and a redeemer and a dispenser of hope. The most tragic days of my life were strangely becoming the most transformational days of my life.”
The family made a concerted effort to “get out of ourselves,” Lee said, going on trips to Haiti, Mexico, Uganda and South Sudan to build homes and work in orphanages and refugee camps.
Lee became involved in an inner-city program for at-risk youth and then education reform and soon public policy surrounding education. Those efforts eventually led to his decision to run for governor.
“My life began to flourish,” he said. “My business was strong again. My family was restored. I met and married the most remarkable woman in the world. And … the story of my life was again, filled with pages of certainty and a belief in God’s goodness that was forged not only in prosperity, but through adversity and prosperity.”
Lee said he has faced the opportunities of the governorship “as a more purposeful and meaningful person than I ever was before.”
Things like standing with Tennesseans after natural disasters, attending adoption ceremonies for foster families and even pardoning criminals are constant reminders of God’s work in his life.
Lee closed with the story of his recent pardon of country music star Jelly Roll, who, unbeknownst to Lee, had been in the audience in 2008 when Lee gave a speech to prisoners.
“In 2008, you were not the governor, and I was not Jelly Roll,” the musician and outspoken Christian told him. “And here we are, 17 years later.”
Jelly Roll’s story served to remind Lee of the thought he had at his wife’s grave 25 years earlier.
“There are very few things in life that matter and we should be about them,” Lee said.
“… The pardons that I give as governor are earthly pardons.
“I have a belief that within every human being, there’s this innate sense that we all need a pardon. And there is only one who can grant that pardon, and He has to be asked. And His name is Jesus. And I, for one, am glad that He summonsed me and I asked Him, and He pardoned me forever.”
Other speakers at the event included El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele, a Christian who spoke about political leaders’ need for wisdom, and Congressmen Ben Cline (R-VA) and Jonathan Jackson (D-IL), who co-hosted the event.
