See if you relate: When it comes to having OCD-related truth strike you in the most penetrating, percussive, permanent way, is anything more effective than surprise?

Truth moments just hit harder when they creep up on us. For me, anyway. For instance, the most impactful books I’ve ever read were the obscure ones where no one could warn me what was going to happen. With new-release movies, I always experience more heartfelt tears and triumph when I see it early, before spoilers or reviews taint it. Come to think of it, even the funniest jokes are the ones where the punchline comes BAM, before you expected it.

Author C.S. Lewis used quite a bit of ink exploring this transformative experience in his famous book Surprised by Joy. Even during the years he was an atheist, said Lewis, he’d experience vivid, elusive, déjà vu-like glimpses of something “beyond,” and they’d come while doing an utterly ordinary activity like looking at nature or reading a line of poetry.  There would be nothing the least transcendent going on … until suddenly there was. And the revelation depended entirely on its being sudden, involuntary, and non-manufactured.

Summarizing this idea, Lewis wrote in Surprised by Joy, “Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed.”

I came at this same idea in The Word on OCD when I talked about familiar scriptures hitting me with fresh relevance when I encountered them the “wrong” way—in the context of a weeklong stay in a behavioral health hospital. My OCD and alcohol dependence had deposited me there, and in that desperate environment, Jesus’s well-worn words on worry from the Sermon on the Mount crept up like a surprise attack: Awareness dawned that God saw me right where I was, right that minute, in those circumstances. Suddenly, the familiar words were specifically for me. What washed over me in that moment was the nearest I’ve come to the ephemeral thing Lewis described.

We can be, as discussed in my book, woefully nose-blind to familiar scripture, undermining its potency right when we need it most. It’s a shame, but generally speaking, we can’t un-hear Bible passages we’ve understood the same way for decades. It’s nearly impossible to re-wire synapses that’ve fired along the same route since 1979.

Until … it actually happens. What I’d love to give you right now is a simple key that makes these revelatory moments more unlockable; some bait that draws them out. But almost by definition, they can’t surprise you unless they’re surprises. As oxymoronic as it sounds, the best I can say is, be prepared to be surprised. In light of your present situation—which probably isn’t identical to all the ordinary situations that preceded it—this might be just the time for you to be more aware.

Here’s an approximation: If I were to send you off on a five-mile nighttime trek through some familiar woods with a cheery, “Meet you on the other side,” your mindset before plunging into the gloom would be much different than were I to whisper furtively, “Keep your eyes open in there,” with no further indication of what you might be likely to see. Either way, a surprise in the woods is a surprise in the woods. But in the latter instance, if a surprise really came, you’d think, This must be what he was telling me about!

So here’s what you need to know when reading familiar scripture under your present OCD circumstances: Be prepared to be surprised. Don’t walk on eggshells, and most certainly don’t be afraid. But when you read familiar Bible passages, keep your eyes open in there. If a surprise comes, savor that joyful jolt! It’ll leave an impression you won’t forget, and one that could change the trajectory of your OCD recovery.

This is what I’m telling you about.