Welcome to today's edition of the Our Daily Bread Devotional.

Sheridan Voicy wrote today's reading, and he titled it, Lower Deck People.

A friend of mine works on a hospital ship called Africa Mercy, which takes free health care to

developing countries. The staff daily serves hundreds of patients whose ailments would

otherwise go untreated. TV crews who periodically board the ship point their cameras on

its amazing medical staff who fix cleft pallets and reset club feet.

Sometimes they go below deck to interview other crew members, but the work Mick does typically

goes unnoticed. Mick, an engineer, admits being surprised about where he had been assigned to work

in the ship's sewage plant.

With up to 40,000 liters of waste produced each day, managing this toxic material is serious

business. Without mick tending its pipes and pumps, Africa Mercy's life-giving operations would stop.

It's easy to apply those on the top deck of Christian ministry while overlooking those

in the galleys below. When the Corinthians elevated those with extraordinary gifts above others,

Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 reminded them that every believer has a role

in Christ's work, and every gift is important, whether it's miraculous healing or helping others.

In fact, the less prominent role, the greater honor it deserves.

Are you a lower-deck person? Then lift your head high.

Your work is honored by God and indispensable to us all.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is from 1 Corinthians chapter 12,

verses 12 through 14, and verses 21 through 27.

Just as a body, though one has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one spirit so as to form one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free, and we were

all given the one spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part, but of many.

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