Mike Burns.

As Mike sits in my living room doing work while I write this post, I think of the first time I met him.  He sported a white baseball shirt with yellow sleeves, Royal blue shorts with a white stripe down the sides that said he stole the outfit from the set of “The Royal Tennenbaums”, and had in his hand his Les Paul electric guitar that he was uniquely qualified to make sound like he was born to play.  So I use this Fridays edition of “3 reasons you should know” to highlight one of my closest friends, who lives in Germany.  So here they are:

1.  He will question in order to find the truth.
You don’t want to walk into a conversation with Mr.  Burns without knowing what you believe, and even if you know what you believe, it would be idiotic of you to make outlandish statements that you read in a forward email in order to make your point.  Mike has a thirst for the truth, and seems to focus his life on eventually finding it.  He will seek an answer and research every possible option before coming to his conclusion.

2.  He is one of the most talented people I’ve met.
Whether it has been playing the guitar (he’s one of the best guitarists I know), or making a video, building a web site design or engineering his own sound equipment from chewing gum and an earring the same way MacGyver builds a bomb, Burns can do it.  I’ve only met a handful of people just as talented, and I’m thinking even fewer than that more so.

3.  He acts like a child.
I mean this in a very literal way, both good and bad.  He will do anything, anytime, and anywhere.  He is into experiences, and this thirst brought him from Maine to Massachusetts and presently to Munich where he has an amazing job that allows him to travel as far as Ireland, Italy, and the Ukraine.  This has been one of the things that has impressed me the most about Mike.  We are called to be childlike in our approach to God, and though he’s far from perfect, I have this sneaking suspicion that this approach to life allows him to hold God as an important part of his life, despite all the questions that haven’t been answered in his mind.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Mike Burns.