Andrew Ward

Christian. Husband. Dad to 3 boys. Meteorologist @metoffice. Coffee lover and Reading FC fan.

[Alex @AO1865]

Dan Burn for the last 20 minutes:

[Andrew Ward @AndrewWard85]

@moving_charlie @MortgageMikeN2 Had an offer accepted on a house last month so had to move quickly on my place. Had 3 different valuations on the property but priced it sensibly at 435k. 17 viewings and sold it within 2 weeks at asking price. Delighted!

[Colin McCarthy @US_Stormwatch]

This footage from inside the eye of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa might be the most jaw-dropping video ever captured of a hurricane’s eye, showcasing the infamous “stadium effect."

[Matt Smethurst @MattSmethurst]

One of the best sermon clips I’ve ever seen.

[Rebecca McLaughlin @RebeccMcLaugh]

Breaking news from the UK (my homeland):

Church attendance has increased by 50% over the last six years! The rise has been particularly striking among 18-24yr-olds, among whom churchgoing has quadrupled from 4% to 16% since 2018!
Read more here:
https://t.co/acdh5Ah4aP

[Andrew Ward @AndrewWard85]

Theo, Seb, Amelia and Ezra joining in the Keswick Olympics in the Equestrian division at Crosthwaite Campsite @KeswickMin #KesCon24

[Colin the Dachshund @DachshundColin]

#GeneralElection

[Scott Bryan @scottygb]

“Things Can Only Get Better” by D:Ream is drowning out Rishi Sunak’s speech calling a general election.

[Met Office @metoffice]

A new attribution study has found human-induced climate change made the heavy storm downpours and total rainfall across the UK and Ireland between October 2023 and March 2024 more frequent and intense.

Here's a thread with the findings 👇

🧵 1/7

[Andrew Ward @AndrewWard85]

@AdamMerrivale Hi Adam, I work for the Met Office at Heathrow Airport and would be happy to help and do a video on Monday if you need more!

[Andrew Ward @AndrewWard85]

@MartinSLewis @bbc5live That people don’t use comparison sites when their car/house insurance is up for renewal. Easy money save. Also worth turning off auto-renewal so the power is taken out of the companies hands!

[Sophie Killingley @PrettySophieK]

An evergreen thread for the upcoming season! Please DON’T fall into this lazy application trap and give everyone a guilt complex 🙌🏼

[Sarah Salviander @sarahsalviander]

This is heartbreaking.

The loss of so many pillars of society has been devastating to young people.

I believe the loss of spirituality has been the most devastating.

The vast majority of human beings need a sense of connection to something greater, to know how they fit into the grand scheme of things, to know objectively what's right and wrong, and to have a sense of future and hope.

There is a spiritual longing in most people that nothing in the material world can satisfy.

A small percentage of people who seem not to have this need have tried to remake the world to suit themselves, and in doing so have drained it of any public expression of spirituality.

That might've seemed okay for the few decades when secularism in the West espoused a liberal, optimistic, pro-human view that was obvious in shows like Star Trek of the 1960s to the 1990s. But it has (d)evolved into to the rigid, pessimistic, misanthropic view embodied by much of entertainment today.

We're constantly told in ways both subtle and gross that we're inherently less-than no matter what we do. We're either perpetrators of oppression or victims of it, and there's nothing we can do about either, unless it involves the complete subjugation or eradication of either the oppressors or the victims.

The idea that we're inherently less-than is not new. Most religions view humanity as flawed or lacking in some way, and secularists hated it, especially as it was framed in Christianity. But unlike Christianity, which features a God who loves us in spite of our flawed nature and offers a clear path to redemption, there is no love or redemption in the new secular view of humanity. You're doomed no matter what you do. It's absolutely hideous.

The loss of community is also devastating.

My guess is that a lot of this has to do with the virtualization of everything, people engaged with too much work, and the absurd cost of living.

When I started as a grad student at a large university, open doors were the norm. You could walk down the hallway and pop in and chat with your colleagues nearly any time you wanted. There was always afternoon tea, journal clubs, receptions for guests, birthday parties, and holiday parties.

By the end of my time there, nearly all of that had stopped. Office doors were closed, either because people were working from home or they were too busy to socialize. No one went to tea anymore, and no one was organizing parties. It was so depressing.

When I left, I spoke with some of the other faculty who felt like the workload had increased significantly. They were too frazzled to socialize. Which was really unfortunate, not only because it diminished the sense of community, but because sometimes those casual chats led to important advancements in their work.

I've spoken with a lot of people in different industries, and many of them feel the same way. The workload has increased, pay has not increased, and they're just too tired and stressed to socialize. They isolate at home in front of the TV or on their phones. This is extremely unhealthy for human beings.

I believe inflation has accelerated this phenomenon. It's just too expensive to do the usual social things anymore. When I was in my 20s, I'd meet friends for a $4 burger and fries at the diner and then go to a $5 movie. Now, a casual meal is minimum $25. Bowling, movies, sporting events? Those used to be working class pastimes. Now you need to be making six figures to afford any of that on a regular basis. Just easier to stay at home and zone out on social media, which exacerbates feelings of isolation and loneliness.

The erosion of social norms has upended everything.

There are no rites of passage anymore, there are no clear paths into adulthood.

It used to be that you were expected to get a career going, get married, and start having kids in your 20s. Now adolescence has been prolonged into the 30s and then people lapse straight into middle age. Most people I know in their 30s are just cohabitating, if they're with someone at all, and none have children.

Human beings need families. We need to be parents and grandparents. And it's one of those things you can't necessarily know you need until you experience it.

Secular reshapers of society tell us that evolution is sufficient to describe all life on Earth and that the only imperative in nature is perpetuation of the species. But at the same time, young people aren't encouraged to actually perpetuate the species. Instead, they're propagandized to believe they'll be happier living for themselves or for some corporate shareholder.

This is the biggest gaslight of all time.

I see comments like this on social media:

"You have kids, but I have something you don't - free time and money."

"I don't want kids. I want to be a cool wine aunt who travels the world."

None of this is cute or funny, it's a horrible and depressing cope.

It's not helped by the cost of things.

I don't know how it is in the UK, but anyone in their 20s in the U.S. and Canada is questioning whether they can afford a home of their own in which to raise a family.

When I was in my 20s in Canada, even the lowest wage earners could afford a modest little home. It's gotten to the point now that people making a decent salary have been completely priced out of home-ownership.

And for those looking for marriage, it's pretty scary out there. Young men who want to invest in marriage and family are worried about being divorced and estranged from their children and stripped of half the assets they worked to build. Young women are worried about finding a man who's willing to settle down and be monogamous when there are so many opportunities to get cheap sex with other women and with online stimulation.

We were told everyone would be happier unburdened by repressive traditional rules regarding sex, replaced instead by the promise of "free love," which has turned out to be neither. No one, except the worst libertines, is happy with the outcome of this.

We need spirituality, we need community and in-person socializing, and we need social norms.

There is no getting around this. We must reject the lies and the gaslighting.

Young people need to know how they belong to the world, where they're going, and how they can get there. They need to know that they have agency, that they matter, and that they have real-world backup.

Somehow, we have to go back to much that our society has rejected. The place to start, in my opinion, is to re-establish the role of the spiritual in the public sphere. And we Christians have to embolden ourselves in this regard. Start with the love of Jesus Christ and all that He promises, and go from there.

[Scott Bryan @scottygb]

It has been quite the year, so as a distraction from all that here are my WTF TV news moments from 2023 ✨

[Phil Knox @philknox]

In my role @EAUKnews I am often asked how are adults coming to faith in the UK at the moment. Here are the big themes and some suggestions for churches to explore… a thread. 🧵

[challies @challies]

Flashback: Those easy and attractive things that are fun, that demand no effort, that keep you squarely in your comfort zone, and that trigger all the brain’s pleasure centers—these can keep you from doing what ultimately counts for so much more.
https://t.co/cDfibcBU3Q

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

An astronaut on the International Space Station took this photograph during a rare clear day over Ireland and Great Britain. The wide view captures the contrasting colors of various land cover types present across the two islands

[source, read more: https://t.co/JRrJGY3TR8]

[Andrew Ward @AndrewWard85]

Wow!

[Virgil L. Walker @virgilwalker]

This is what happens when the joy of the Lord is your strength.

#BoomerSooner #WCWS