April 23, 2025 - Good Morning! It’s Wednesday, April 23.
Change. Change is part of life. Change is inevitable. Change comes to everyone. All we can hope for is that it be a change for the better. But sometimes it seems to be a case of change for change sake. And we end up worse than before.
In the spring of 1985, the Coca-Cola Company was celebrating its 100th anniversary, and there were lots of reasons to celebrate. It had the most successful carbonated drink in history and a huge share of the worldwide market. Their brand name was so famous that the word ”coke” was often used to refer to any soft drink - in the same way that people use Kleenex for any tissue, Jello for any gelatin, and Q-Tips for any swab. The executives at Coca-Cola were sitting on top of a billion dollar goldmine. So what did they do? They changed their product! On April 23, 1985 - 40 years ago today - they introduced “New Coke.” The negative backlash was immediate and overwhelming.
Coke had been looking back over their shoulder at Pepsi for decades, and this new formula - sweeter and flatter - was a lot like, well... Pepsi. Coke drinkers, to put it mildly, were not pleased. 79 days later, the original formula was brought back, now called “Classic Coke.” The new mix, renamed Coke II, was off the shelves completely by the year 2000. Change. Change for change sake. Change - but not for the better.
The Word has much to say to us about change. It features Bible character after Bible character who were changed because of their relationship with God. And in Ephesians 4 we receive this wise instruction - “Put off your old self, which belongs to your former way of life and is corrupt, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds. Put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
