How much would you pay for something that you could get for free? Hundreds of thousands of dollars? Millions? It’s a ridiculous question, right? Who in their right mind would do that? Well, believe it or not…it’s happening. Have you heard of “crypto collectibles”? For a lot of money you can be the owner of something that everyone else can get for free online including artwork, music and sports highlights. I don’t understand how this works (or why) but then again I still have a flip phone and write out checks by hand. It’s somehow related to crypto currency, like Bitcoin (which I also don’t understand). Apparently, you buy the right to own the original digital image of whatever it is. Others can see it for nothing… but you own it. Wow! Isn’t that exciting? A video clip of LeBron James dunking a basketball went for $208,000. Everyone else can see that same clip whenever they want to without any payment at all, but congratulations to whoever laid out all of that money. I hope that he and his video clip will be very happy together.
     The guy who started Twitter put his very first tweet up for auction. The current bid for the original picture of the tweet stands at $2.5 million. That sure sounds like a solid investment. If you’re interested and don’t have that kind of disposable income you can probably get a “crypto kitty” for under $100. Some go for a lot more, but there are some real bargains out there if you look for them. All of these things are called non-fungible tokens or NFTs. This means that, unlike Bitcoin (which is all the same) each of these is different. Oh…now I get it! That makes more sense. (In case you’re not sure please note the tone of sarcasm in my comments here).
     OK, so what’s my point? In the news report that I saw about this they interviewed a man who is involved in it and he said something interesting. He talked about the “idea that something intangible can be valuable.” It was that statement (and not my opinion that this whole thing is ridiculous) that caught my attention. Intangible things can certainly have value. Some actually have great value.
     Ideas, emotions, talents and knowledge are all examples of intangible things that can have value in our lives. So are experiences, morals and culture. We don’t often think of these things in that way, but it’s true. But how do we measure such things? How do we know what their value is? 
     The Broadway show, Rent has a song called “Seasons of Love”. It talks about how we can measure a year, which is another intangible thing. The song begins with the mathematical answer to that question which is five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes. It moves on to give us other ways to measure this like the number of daylights, sunsets and cups of coffee a year could include…also adding laughter and strife. Then the song gives a different answer…a much more important one. It asks, “How about love?” And when you think about it, isn’t that the real measure of anything worthwhile in our lives, tangible or intangible?
     As we finish our Lenten journey this year and look towards Easter we should be mindful of the intangibles that Jesus came to bring us…things like compassion, mercy, peace and joy. What could we possibly have or own that would be of any greater value? More importantly Jesus came to bring us forgiveness...to express the extent of His love for us…and to offer us the possibility of the most important intangible of them all…salvation.
     But are these things really free? Actually, they’re not. There is a cost to them but it has nothing to do with any kind of currency, crypto or otherwise. Think about the things that we have to give up in order to fully have all that God wants for us. We need to let go of things like anger, gossip, greed and jealously. We have to stop being ungrateful, vulgar, selfish and stubborn. We have to work at not being hurtful or judgmental towards others (which might require a decrease in social media use). We have to stop letting our pride get in the way of our being able to receive so many good things and of getting rid of so many bad ones. The list of things that salvation will cost us is actually pretty long…and good riddance to all of them. They are just a bunch of intangibles that do nothing more than separate us from God and from each other. The only real cost to anyone was paid by Jesus as He gave His life for us…which He happily did because He understood the cost that we would have to pay if He hadn’t done so.
     Salvation and eternal life are the most important things that we could ever want. Don’t let anything, tangible or intangible keep them from you. All they require is a little sacrifice on our part. Not a bad deal.
Happy Easter,
Father Bob