My friend Preston Poore wrote an intriguing blog a few weeks ago about the competition between Coca-Cola and Pepsi at the University of Alabama back in the late 90s, early 2000s. Preston worked for Coke. It’s long, complex, and very informative if you want to learn about high-level marketing issues. Preston lists his main lessons learned as:

• Position (sometimes you need someone in power, in this case, the President of the University of Alabama)
• Persistence (Preston persisted until he succeeded)
• Providence (Preston sees God’s hand in his work)

I’m not writing about these things. Please read the blog in its entirety for details.

Advent season is a time to think about God becoming present in our world, even in the mundane. I say mundane because as I was reading Preston’s blog, I’m thinking, “I can’t imagine anything less important or relevant than how many people in Alabama drink Coke instead of Pepsi.” I was thinking about what Steve Jobs said to John Sculley when Steve was trying to get John to leave his high position in an established company like Pepsi and join Apple: a start-up that may or may not succeed. Steve said:

Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?

Back to Preston, a marketer of “sugar water.” The fact that Preston saw God in some of the details means that God cares even about the trivial.

It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3.24)

At this time of year, we’re thinking about Advent: Jesus came into the world. He worked as a carpenter, building things that turned to dust long ago. He turned water into wine at a wedding. My early mentors in The Navigators used to say, “It’s all gonna burn…so invest in men…Don’t give your life to bananas [or Coca-Cola(!)]” But that outlook, as powerful and motivating as it was, was incomplete. God is in all of it. The incarnation reminds us of that.

When the time came, [Jesus] set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death. (Philippians 2.7, 8, MSG)