LISP wasn't my first programming language (I programmed in other languages as a hobbyist for many years: Turbo C, Turbo BASIC, Quick BASIC, Professional Development System BASIC, wrote articles for a computer magazine, then went on to work as a professional programmer, designing and programming water treatment plants), and to be honest, I didn't care for LISP at all. "Meh, what's with all the ephing parenthesis, jeez!" I had toyed with it and wrote some simple programs, e.g. freeze a layer by pick was one of my first efforts, but nothing particularly complex, and certainly hadn't recognized it's hidden power or elegance. That was 1988.
But then in 1990 I had to master LISP as a matter of necessity -- as fast as I could -- as a GIS project I was working on was based on truck loads of LISP code by a third party, and said code was frequently buggered. Basically I had to master the language AND fix someone else's code as fast as possible, as well as author my own solutions. I remember being under a lot of pressure. On the plus side, the third party code was written by professional programmers, and their code was written and documented very well, even by "today's standards", so even though I was fixing the code, I was learning tons from it. By the time I finished the project I had edited thousands of pages of their code and written enough of my own code to fill a 4" binder++; compressed print (and another full of SQL code, but I digress). I recall that we started referring to the project in terms of pounds of code instead of pages, it was such an unbelievable amount of code. Anyway, by the time that project was complete I felt very comfortable programming LISP and had even come to appreciate its expressiveness and elegance. Said project was only about 8 months long, but it seemed like forever, then poof, we were done.
A couple years later I decided that of all the programming I had done to date (1981 forward) I had enjoyed AutoCAD development the most, and decided to make that theater my primary focus, even though I had planned to become an uber water treatment plant designer / programmer and had invested 5 years in same. 16 years later I have no regrets about the unplanned career tangent.
To summarize, you learn to walk a thousand miles by walking a thousand miles, one mile at a time. "Aha" moments will come more frequent as you progress on your journey, book ended by sobering realizations of the vast amount you don't know, and the increasing awareness the journey isn't a thousand miles after all, but infinite. Like any art form, you will never fully master it, there is always something new to learn, always some skill that can be refined, improved, perfected ... similar to being a musician ... and why it's such a joy. Worry not about "the click" -- anticipate drum rolls -- they will come.