A Complimentary Lesson from AVG

"complimentary": 2. given free as a courtesy or favor [Mirriam-Webster's complimentary online dictionary]

Given the Lutheran appreciation of (if not obsession with) things that are free, and the fact that most of my internet friends and readers are Lutheran, I suspect that I am not alone in having suffered a computer meltdown due to a well-meaning, yet aberrant and incapacitating AVG update last night.

This debacle goes to show you that just because something is free does not mean it is ultimately beneficial or without cost to somebody.

In my case, the only cost to me was some recreational, read "Bejeweled Blitz," computer time last night and an hour's trip to Prime Systems computer shop this morning. However the cost to the proprietors of Prime Systems, and thousands of reputable computer shops like them, is great in that they are cleaning up the mess AVG created for their customers on their dime—not to mention the lost income and additional labor costs for countless other proprietors who do their own tech support and rely on AVG to keep their computers open for business. Kudos to Prime Systems and their ilk!

That nothing--and I do mean nothing--is actually free or ultimately without cost in this world is even and most especially true when it comes to our salvation in Christ. Though priceless and not available for our purchase, our salvation came at a cost. Truth be told it came at the greatest of costs—the holy, precious blood, and the innocent suffering and death of the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Thanks be to God, He does not pass that cost to us, but graciously offers it to us through the work of the Holy Spirit in His holy Christian church by the preaching of the Gospel along with the waters of Baptism, the proclamation of Absolution, and the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in Holy Communion. In this way we receive the complimentary service of our Lord that not only cleans up the mess we sinners have made of our lives, but gives us eternal life with Him in the kingdom of heaven.