July 2: An Answered Tweet

Ever want to catch for a Major League Baseball pitcher?  Try connecting on Twitter!

On a day when his team wasn’t playing, Colorado Rockies pitcher Jeremy Guthrie wanted someone to catch for him—so he sent a message to his 34,000 followers on the social media website Twitter, asking, “Anybody on lunch break & up for a catch with me?”

Woody Roseland, a 21-year-old stand-up comic, was the first to respond to Guthrie’s offer—and he got a positive response!  It was Roseland’s lucky day in another way, too: after two-and-a-half years of receiving chemotherapy for cancer in his knees, lungs, and calf, he had completed his last treatment.

When the two men met, Guthrie was surprised to see Roseland’s prosthetic left leg and hairless head—both remnants of his long battle with cancer.  One tweet and an afternoon of baseball cemented Guthrie’s and Roseland’s friendship.

The Internet gives us new ways to connect with each other, but face-to-face and heart-to-heart meetings are still the best.

A cheerful heart is a good medicine.  (Proverbs 17:22)

Lord, help me to find joy in times of suffering, trusting that You will never abandon me in times of sorrow.