04 October 2012

Well, his name's totally pyromaniacal... mostly totally...

by Dan Phillips

Haven't the time to finish baking the things I have on-tap, so I'll shamelessly vanitize this to say

Happy birthday,
Josiah!

My middle son, Josiah Paul Julien Phillips, was born 17 years ago today, at 35 or 6 to 4 in the morning. It was one of the very happiest days of my life. You know, after the terror and all.

Josiah was first-named after the king who rediscovered the Word of God, which transformed both him and his culture (2 Kgs. 22). He was middle-named first after the great apostle, whose life was given to knowing Jesus Christ and making Him known, for all he was worth (Phil. 1:19-21; 3:8-17); and second after my dad, a dear and incredibly capable man, and just about the most unstoppable man I've known.

So Josiah's full name was both a prayer and a parental aspiration, as must have been the case for godly parents over the many millennia.

I could go on and on (Readers [unkindly]: "You already have"), but let's bring the vanity to a crescendo with something aimed at giving the birthday boy a smile:


Dan Phillips's signature


16 comments:

DJP said...

Happy birthday to you too, one-star hater!

Mike Westfall said...

Happy birthday, Josiah.
Coincidentally, today is also my middle daughter, Marija's birthday.

She's 11 years old.

Party down, dudes.

DJP said...

What a cool name, Marija. Makes me want to say it out loud. Marija!

Happy birthday to her as well.

Robert said...

Happy Birthday, Josiah!

Seriously, a one-star review for this? That's just sad and pathetic. Not that the others make sense, either. There must be some people who just make it their first task of the morning to come to Pyros and hit one star.

Rational νεόφυτος said...

Obama could have used one of those Wilhelm screams last night...

Linda said...

Happy Birthday Josiah and I hope that one of your greatest joys in life would be to please your father and even moreso to please God as your heavenly Father..

oh your mother also.

have a blessed day

You are fearfully and wonderfully made by God-Psa 139:14

Randy Talley said...

Josiah, have a wonderful and blessed day.

JG said...

Happy birthday, Josiah! :)

Merrilee Stevenson said...

JPJP, Happy Birthday young man! My firstborn son (who is 10) is named Julien Paul, so of course I love your name. It's obvious that your parents love you dearly--especially considering today's post! :o)

After a little further browsing on the internets, I realized what the Wilhelm Scream is all about. Thanks for sharing. I hope your celebrations today were one scream after another! (I'm all out of exclamation points now, so Happy Birthday.)

Susan said...

Happy birthday, Josiah!

(And to Josiah's father: What did you mean when you said, "Josiah...was born...at 35 or 6 to 4 in the morning"? I'm not sure if I understand--got a mental block there....)

Susan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mike Westfall said...

Susan, you are not a Chicago fan, I guess.

Susan said...

Oh...Chicago! Thanks, Mike. (I like some of Chicago's songs, but I'm definitely not an expert nor a groupie.)

Susan said...

(Wait...should I have used "or" instead of "nor"?? Mental block again.)

David said...

Happy birthday Josiah.
I once preached sermon about why Shadrach Meshach and Abednego were so faithful in a foreign, pagan culture. I started by explaining the meaning of their original Hebrew names (Dan 1:6) and what that said about their parents.

MTHudson said...

Happy Belated, Josiah - couldn't let this one go by because he shares his birthday with my mother - so Happy Birthday, Mom!