St. Maximus the Confessor, “Evil has no power of its own; it survives only by the strength it steals.”
The Quiet Pull
John 13:31–32 dropped a bomb I wasn’t expecting.
The Holy Spirit had me stumbling through concordances before caffeine even remembered it had responsibilities. My body is still recovering from a back-to-back bout of illness, nothing fatal, just the accumulated fatigue of a year spent pushing harder than wisdom recommends.
But the word “immediately” refuses to leave me alone.
I cannot recall a single sermon in twenty-one years of following Jesus that lingered over this tiny, explosive adverb in the Passion narrative. Mark felt its force so deeply he used it nearly forty times, euthys… euthys… euthys, as though the Kingdom has its own pulse beyond human timetables.
And then there is the Last Breakfast, almost never preached: Jesus resurrected, building a charcoal fire on a beach, inviting tired men to sit, warm themselves, and eat fish with Him (John 21:9–12).
He calls them ashore immediately, as if restoration does not require hesitation.
In my walk with God, I have had to unlearn many things:
I once thought suffering meant failure.
I once treated God like a cosmic butler.
I once believed relief was the proof of favour.
But holiness has its own pace.
Sometimes it moves slowly.
Sometimes it moves suddenly.
Sometimes it moves immediately, not to spare us pain, but to reveal the fire on the shore where He waits. But, always, immediately, God is in it with us. If, we respond to His breakfast on the shore.
It tortures me, beautifully, that I cannot build a fire big enough to invite God. I am too small.
So instead He lights one in me, and I fall in love again.
All because of one word: immediately.
The Tightening Coil of Dissonance
Human beings are resistant to truth.
We don’t, immediately, recognise it.
Psychology confirms it.
Leon Festinger showed that when truth threatens identity, the mind bends reality to protect the self; cognitive dissonance.¹ The kettle is already boiling.
Jonathan Haidt demonstrated that moral reasoning is mostly instinct; our rational brain merely justifies decisions already made by intuition.² The coil tightens.
Daniel Gilbert found that humans mispredict their own emotional futures with astonishing consistency.³ We chase the wrong flames. Tighter still.
Anthony Greenwald uncovered the self-serving bias: we remember, interpret, and defend information in whatever way protects our ego.⁴ The coil constricts.
Erving Goffman claimed much of identity is performance, front-stage personas hiding backstage fragility.⁵ Another tightening.
And the digital world intensifies this coil, social media manufactures “immediacy” as a counterfeit revelation, training the mind to mistake speed for truth and visibility for reality.
Ernest Becker insisted humans build elaborate illusion-systems to avoid the terror of meaninglessness.⁶ The coil narrows.
Jacques Lacan said the ego itself is a misrecognition, a mirror that lies convincingly.⁷ It tightens again.
Thomas Nagel added that humans are trapped inside a subjective vantage point, unable to perceive truth without transcendence.⁸ Now the coil is nearly unbearable.
And in the salon chair, clients confess the same ache:
“Something is slipping away.”
“Everything feels squeezed.”
“It’s getting tighter.”
No one names it, but everyone feels it, the psychological constriction of an age addicted to illusions.
Human immediacy = panic, performance, projection, self-protection.
We react. We defend. We hide.
We trigger ourselves into blindness.
All the while, the coil tightens.
Quietly. Invisibly. Inevitably.
The Holy Disruption
Now comes the turn.
We assume Judas was triggered by Satan.
We assume darkness entered him suddenly.
We assume evil pounced without warning.
But Scripture shows something more confronting: Judas was not only triggered by the devil. He was triggered by his own dissonance. The enemy merely stepped into the vacuum Judas hollowed out.
Jesus, by contrast, is not triggered at all.
He does not react.
He does not panic.
He does not tighten.
He does not coil.
The moment Judas stands up, Jesus says:
“Now the Son of Man is glorified… and God will glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately” (John 13:31–32).
Jesus triggers His own glorification. Where humans collapse under pressure, Jesus pressures evil into exposing itself.
Where we misread suffering, Jesus reads glory.
Where we coil in fear, Jesus acts in sovereignty. Every illusion, every cognitive distortion, every lie in your mirror, every protective false self, is not an obstacle to God.
It is His stage.
Your pain does not delay His plan.
Your confusion does not postpone His presence.
Your weakness does not slow His Kingdom.
The cross was not Jesus reacting to evil. It was Jesus forcing evil to destroy itself.
Triggered.
Immediately.
The Doxological Resolution
Salvation did not begin on Easter morning. It began the second Judas walked out. The second betrayal slipped into the night. The second the coil tightened around the world. Because Jesus allowed evil to trigger itself, evil imploded.
Immediately.
So here is the final twist, the fire on the shore:
Why let illusions coil around you one more second?
Why let dissonance govern one more breath?
Why let mirrors lie when the Light Himself calls you to come ashore immediately?
The God who glorified His Son at the exact moment suffering began can do the same in you.
Your night does not delay His work.
Your weakness does not interrupt His timing.
Your pain does not slow His glory.
He is the God of Immediately.
The God who lights the fire.
The God who calls you to breakfast.
The God who triggers redemption before darkness knows it’s losing.
So turn.
Immediately.
Because He already has.
Amen.
Practical Application — When “Immediately” Becomes Obedience
The word “immediately” is not just a theological insight; it is an invitation to a different way of living.
1. Respond to conviction immediately. Do not negotiate with the part of you that explains away truth. When the Holy Spirit highlights a pattern, a sin, a habit, a coping mechanism, act. Delayed obedience is the fuel of dissonance.
2. Allow God to disrupt your illusions. Ask Him daily: “What mirror is lying to me today?” Expect Him to reveal one. He always does, not to shame you, but to free you.
3. Interrupt the coil with worship. When you feel pressure, confusion, or tightening, pause and say: “Jesus, glorify Yourself in this, immediately.” It dismantles the illusion that you must fix yourself. It hands the pressure back to the One who thrives under it.
4. Step toward the fire on the shore. Every day has a “breakfast-by-the-sea” moment, a Scripture, a prompting, a whisper, a correction, a gentle nudge. Move toward it now. Don’t delay restoration that Jesus has already initiated.
5. Make an “Immediate List.” Write down three things you will obey today, not someday, forgiveness, truth-telling, repentance, generosity, intimacy with God. Immediate obedience breaks long-term illusions.
Prayer — The God of Immediately
Lord Jesus,
You are the God who moves without hesitation. You glorified Yourself in the very moment betrayal began. You step into our darkness long before we understand it, and You call us ashore immediately.
Break every lie in us that delays obedience. Disarm the illusions that coil around our thinking. Expose every mirror that lies, every fear that hides, every wound that distorts. Make our spirits sharp, awake, responsive.
Light Your fire in us, the fire that purifies, restores, and calls us to Yourself. Teach us to obey immediately, to trust immediately, to turn immediately.
Because You already have turned toward us.
In Your Holy Name Lord Jesus,
Amen.
TRACK TO ENJOY:
References
1. Festinger, Leon. A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1957.
2. Haidt, Jonathan. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. New York: Pantheon, 2012.
3. Gilbert, Daniel. Stumbling on Happiness. New York: Knopf, 2006.
4. Greenwald, Anthony. “The Totalitarian Ego: Fabrication and Revision of Personal History.” American Psychologist 35, no. 7 (1980).
5. Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books, 1959.
6. Becker, Ernest. The Denial of Death. New York: Free Press, 1973.
7. Lacan, Jacques. Écrits. New York: Norton, 2006.
8. Nagel, Thomas. The View from Nowhere. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
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