What makes Lisp so good?
> "SQL, Lisp, and Haskell are the only programming languages that I've seen where one spends more time thinking than typing." - Philip Greenspun
> "I have heard more than one LISP advocate state such subjective comments as, "LISP is the most powerful and elegant programming language in the world" and expect such comments to be taken as objective truth. I have never heard a Java, C++, C, Perl, or Python advocate make the same claim about their own language of choice." - A guy on Slashdot.
"One can even conjecture that Lisp owes its survival specifically to the fact that its programs are lists, which everyone, including me, has regarded as a disadvantage." - John McCarthy, "Early History of Lisp"
"Some may say Ruby is a bad rip-off of Lisp or Smalltalk, and I admit that. But it is nicer to ordinary people." - Matz, LL2
I could keep going but most of the quotes on that page are gold.
To answer your question, though, you may need to write some programs in Lisp yourself. I recommend Racket (less decisions and setup than CL-just use DrRacket.)
- simple syntax
- extensible with macros that mesh well with the language
- tend to be expression-oriented, which some people favor
- usually have pleasant functional programming features
- usually have well-thought-out semantics
Of course, I personally don't think programming in Lisp has much to do with wielding lambda calculus in any superlatively direct sense.