Christian Hip-Hop Artist Sees God’s Faithfulness Through Chronic Illness

Published: April 28, 2026

microphone — Photo by Ladislav Bona on Unsplash

By Mallory Mattingly

Christian hip-hop artist and pastor Trip Lee opened up about why he needed to take some time away from pastoring.

Lee was diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis, a “biological illness that affects many body parts. It causes severe fatigue not improved by rest, problems thinking and sleeping, dizziness, pain, and many other symptoms,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

“It has been the hardest part of every part of my life for the last many many years,” he revealed in a conversation with the 700 CLUB. “And so currently I’m not pastoring in part because I haven’t been able to find a way that my health and pastoring God’s people matches together in a way that’s healthy for me and for my family and that serves the church the best.”

“And to me it’s important that — I think when there are things that God calls us to, we assume that those callings are things that just last forever, when sometimes there are seasons where we have to look at, ‘What does it look like for me to be most faithful to Jesus?'” Lee continued. “Even if there’s something that really honors Him that I have been doing, let me be honest about this season and if it’s really most healthy for me and the people I’m serving to keep doing that.”

Even through chronic illness, Lee still sees God’s faithfulness and goodness.

“I think about a passage in Habakkuk where Habakkuk is basically like, ‘Hey, all of our crops are gone, all of our strength is gone, everything we need is gone, but the Lord is our strength.’ Those things are more clearly true when the things you have been dependent on are actually taken from you,” the hip-hop artist explained.

“So since my physical strength is so undependable, I cannot live under the illusion that the reason things work out is because of my strength,” Lee emphasized. “There are so many times where I would stumble and limp into the pulpit and preach a sermon. I’m like, ‘I can’t even remember what I said. I hope it was true.’ I did my best to prepare. Somebody would say, ‘This changed my life.’ And it would be such a reminder that yes, I want to be faithful and I’m trying to do my best. At the end of the day, it is not my strength. It is not my even preparation. It is not my giftedness that is the final decider of whether this will be fruitful in a way that honors God. It is God Himself. Scripture says unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor, labor in vain. And I feel like that is clearer to me than it would be if my strength weren’t so undependable.”

Though Lee has needed to set aside pastoring, he continues to do his best to honor God and serve his family.

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