What "While I'm Waiting" means
The title is a theological statement compressed into three words. It does not say "until I'm done waiting" or "while I wait for this to end." It says while I'm waiting, as if the waiting itself is a location, a duration with its own activity inside it, a place where things happen to and in the person who is learning to inhabit it without collapsing.
John Waller wrote the song for the film Fireproof, but it has grown well past that origin into a broader pastoral application because the waiting it describes is not circumstance-specific. Every congregation contains people waiting. Waiting for a diagnosis. Waiting for a marriage to heal. Waiting for a prodigal to come home. Waiting for a sense of calling to become clear. Waiting for God to do the thing they have been asking him to do for years. The song does not rush any of them toward resolution. It asks what faithfulness looks like inside the wait itself, and it names specific practices: serving, trusting, worshiping, following.
That specificity is what distinguishes this song from generic waiting songs. The singer is not just enduring. They are actively doing things. The waiting is not passive. It is a mode of discipleship.
What this song does in a room
The song tends to find people in the room who have been quiet about something they are waiting for. The lyric gives them a category for the current chapter without requiring them to disclose what they are waiting for. They can sing "while I'm waiting I will serve you" and the congregation does not need to know the specific thing they are holding. That anonymity is sometimes what makes it possible to sing something true.
Rooms that have been through corporate waiting (a pastoral vacancy, a building project that stalled, a year when the church numerically declined) tend to respond to this song with a collective recognition. The congregation has been doing this together and the song names it. That naming has its own consolation.
The other thing the song does is challenge a passive version of faith that equates waiting with inactivity. The repeated "while I'm waiting I will" followed by active verbs (serve, worship, run) is a pastoral correction delivered through the lyric. The congregation leaves with a different posture toward their own waiting seasons.
What this song is saying about God
Isaiah 40:28-31 is the song's primary theological source: "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
The Hebrew word translated "hope" in that passage (qavah) means to wait with expectation, to bind together like a cord, to have one's attention and trust stretched toward something. The waiting Isaiah describes is not passive resignation. It is active orientation toward the LORD. The song's "while I'm waiting I will" language is a direct descendant of that verb.
Psalm 27:14 is the companion text: "Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD." The double "wait for the LORD" bookending the verse is not stuttering. It is teaching a practice that requires repetition to actually form.
Romans 8:24-25 supplies the New Testament grounding: "For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." The waiting Paul describes is shaped by the object of the hope, which is the full redemption of creation. The congregation that sings this song is locating their individual waiting inside that larger waiting of all creation.
What the song claims about God: he is worth waiting for. Not because the wait will necessarily be short or because resolution is guaranteed on the terms the singer is hoping for. Worth waiting for because of who he is, and because the faithfulness practiced in the waiting is not wasted.
Scriptural backbone
Isaiah 40:31: "But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." The athletic language (soar, run, walk) is a progression from the extraordinary to the ordinary. Soaring is dramatic. Running is effort. Walking is just continuing. The covenant promise covers all three modes, which means the ordinary endurance of faithful waiting is as supernaturally sustained as the moments of obvious blessing.
How to use it in a service
This song belongs in a service where the sermon is explicitly about perseverance, hope, suffering, or the Christian experience of delay. It belongs in a New Year service when the congregation is walking into another year of something unresolved. It belongs in a service that is acknowledging a hard season in the life of the church without falsely celebrating that the hard season is over.
As a mid-set song after a confession or lament, the song functions as the turn from acknowledging what is hard toward naming what faithfulness looks like inside it. That transition, from acknowledgment to active posture, is where this song does its best work.
Do not use it on a Sunday when the congregation just received good news and you want to celebrate. The song will feel out of register. Do not pair it directly after a triumphant song about breakthrough. The tonal gap is too large and neither song will serve the room well.
For a series on Habakkuk, Job, Psalms of lament, or Romans 8, the song is a strong weekly anchor. The theological continuity between the biblical text and the lyric is high enough to reinforce the sermon rather than compete with it.
Things to watch for as the worship leader
The 68 BPM tempo in G is the slower end of this batch, and the song needs the slowness. The groove should feel deliberate, like someone walking with intention rather than rushing. A faster version of this song accidentally cheerleads the waiting in a way that misses the actual pastoral need.
The verse lyric carries more theological weight than the chorus, which is unusual in modern worship. Make sure your vocal performance on the verse is giving it the attention it deserves. The "I will serve you while I'm waiting" line is the actual pastoral instruction. The chorus is the emotional release of what the verse has been saying. Do not rush the verses to get to the chorus.
Watch the repeated bridge. If the song settles into a vamp on "I will worship while I'm waiting," the congregation should feel the weight of the "will" as covenant language rather than a casual marker. They are making a decision in that moment. The repetition should deepen the decision rather than dilute it through familiarity.
A note for the team behind you (techs, vocalists, band)
Vocalists, the harmonies in this song should feel like voices strengthening a cord, not embellishing a solo. The waiting in the song is communal. Vocal blend that sounds like a small group practicing something hard together is more appropriate here than a polished studio vocal stack.
Band, the 68 BPM groove needs to be steady but not rigid. A human feel in the rhythm communicates the ongoing nature of the waiting better than a metronomically precise arrangement. Let the song breathe.
Audio engineer: this is a song where the congregation's voice should be audible in the mix. They are the ones waiting. They should be heard. Mix the room mics in and let the pad support the congregational sound. Lighting: consistent throughout. No dramatic shifts. The constancy of the lighting should match the constancy being asked of the congregation. A warm, steady wash from beginning to end is the right visual metaphor. ProPresenter operator: the verse lyrics contain the theological content. Advance the slides slowly enough that people actually read the words before singing them. Give the congregation time to own the "I will" before they say it aloud.