Lauren Daigle was ready to start planning for her future and thinking about college. Then, she received a stunning diagnosis.
“I was diagnosed with this illness called Cytomegalovirus. Basically, it’s an autoimmune deficiency. So I was really susceptible to getting illnesses if I was out of the house, and also I was experiencing extreme fatigue. So basically I would sleep for about fourteen hours a night and then wake up with just enough energy to go to the sofa and lay there all day.”
Her condition was so serious that she wasn’t able to attend her southern Louisiana high school for nearly two years, keeping at her studies from home. Yet, in these midst of these frustrating obstacles she never could have foreseen, God reached out to her in a powerful way.
“The Lord really, really met me in that season, and I don’t take that season for granted at all. I’m actually so thankful that I was able to walk through something like that.
Do I believe that God gave me the illness? No but the Word says that He works all things out for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. So in that situation He worked out the very best things that could have happened for me.
Remarkably, it was this season of illness that God really used to confirm the path that Lauren – now a twenty three year old music artist taking contemporary Christian music by storm – was supposed to take.
“So I started doubting what the Lord had put on my heart from a young age. When I was young the Lord always pressed on me that I wanted to sing! People would ask what I wanted to do when I grow up, and I’d say I wanted to sing!
But, as I started to get older – I started to think about what makes the most sense, because of the way my surroundings were impacting my mindset. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But it was incredible how the Lord didn’t let me fall under, but instead He used that season of being sick to remind me – that was also His purpose and His plan for my life as well.
He started imparting vision to me during that time. It was amazing because I was laying on the bed, wasn’t able to do anything and I would get visions of touring, and tour buses and being on and off stages, and venues, and interviews, and charts. I mean He showed me literally so much of it, and I would lay in bed and say God is this just me dreaming? Am I getting cabin fever, or is this really what you’re calling me to?
And He would assure me, and say, ‘No! This is what I have in store!’
It was beautiful because not only in that time did He awaken a dream in me, but He also didn’t allow me to fall under to what the enemy wanted to create in that time – loneliness & depression. God let me see the next season. He didn’t allow me to remain stuck in that place. It was really a beautiful time when I started to learn who God was our comforter, who He is as our provider, and also how He was going to restore what the locusts had tried to eat as well.”
Full Interview: How Lauren Daigle found His purpose in illness
