diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index fc66a8e5..a808297f 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -3,11 +3,14 @@ project('lite', 'c', 'cpp', version: '1.06', default_options : ['c_std=gnu11', '
 cc = meson.get_compiler('c')
 libm = cc.find_library('m', required : false)
 libdl = cc.find_library('dl', required : false)
+lua_dep = dependency('lua5.2', required : false)
 
-lua_subproject = subproject('lua', default_options: [
-  'default_library=static', 'use_readline=false'
-])
-lua_dep = lua_subproject.get_variable('lua_dep')
+if not lua_dep.found()
+  lua_subproject = subproject('lua', default_options: [
+    'default_library=static', 'use_readline=false'
+  ])
+  lua_dep = lua_subproject.get_variable('lua_dep')
+endif
 
 sdl_dep = dependency('sdl2', method: 'config-tool')