ATQ – How Might You Make This More Concrete?

Exploring Powerful Questions

In the last Talking Note I explore the difference between ideas that are concrete and those that are abstract. While there is use for both, I propose the benefit of the concrete especially when it comes to transformation. For example, the idea of love as an abstraction is unaffecting, while as a concrete reality love almost demands a response.

How then can we apply this idea in our own lives for our own transformation and even for greater impact in world around us? We may first want to realize that we operate with a certain amount of abstraction. For areas of our life that are too much, too big, or too far away, for example, abstractions give us language to hold on while swimming in an unmanageable scope. This is not inherently evil, but can cause us some trouble when we begin to desire change in that very area. For change to occur, we must be able to concretize the situation.

To do so we can ask a fairly direct question:

How can You Make This More Concrete?

Making something concrete is bringing something from the realm of the abstract into the realm of the material. With regards to the spiritual, or unseen world, making something concrete has to do with acknowledging the material effects of its reality. It may be a lovely idea to think that the Universe is benevolent or that God is unconditionally loving. If those ideas don’t have some real material effect on your life there is little concreteness to them.

Concreteness is important because our physical bodies and physical experience play a large part in our formation. In order for a belief to be acted upon, our bodies must come to trust that it is true – or at least be willing to find out. Spiritual realities, beliefs, or ideas may have little hold on us if they don’t show up in the physical world.

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