Steven G. Cavalli (January 9th 1947-June 12h 2024)
“See you on the other side” say’s he, his last words to me. My best friend in truth, because of grace!
Truth was our friend, truth was our bond, truth was our purpose in being friends. We butted heads, but never hearts! Steve Cavalli and I where best friends in truth; because of grace.
I know, he knew, we all know, best friends can be for now, for then- you now, me then, but Steve would ask you now. “Do you have a best friend forever”?
Do you know a forever friend? Steve and I shared the same best friend- Jesus! I called him by his Hebrew name Yeshua!
Steve shared our best friend with anyone who was willing to listen. And those who where not willing missed something most gracious, profound, loving and true. And missed that perhaps forever.
Steve was a true man of God, not perfect but truly forgiven, truly effective, gracious and kind-most of the the time!
You see perfection is theoretical, the Greeks taught us that word, it is a noun. Their gods of perfection where in fixed marble statues of stone. Steve served the God of Abraham, Isaak and Jacob. As do I.
He; the God of Israel has no word for perfection that is fixed and immovable. His word is Tamam; It is a verb- meaning wholeness, completeness and that growing and maturing into integrity. The God of creation is about being alive, not marble statues carved in stone. Cast in the ideas of men.
Steve was not perfect, He was wholly for Jesus. That’s the truth because of grace.
Jesus came full of grace and truth, he came to make us whole- fully alive. Steve my best friend in truth and grace would ask you, now; very lovingly, very caring, very sincerely yet very seriously. Do you know Jesus?
I would ask you, do you know him as he truly is, or as you think him to be?
These were my last words with Steve, my brother in truth and grace.
Truly- I said:
“I love you Steve”. “I love you too”, say’s he.
“Your my best friend Steve, because you have always been willing to tell me the truth”. “People willing to do that are very rare Steve”. He just smiled inquisitively.
“I know Steve, you and I are the kind of people who have lots of people tell us “your my best friend”. Some who have told me that I see two times a year, and I wonder”…
“I’m going to miss you Steve” says I. He said “I’ll miss you too”.
“No you wont” I said!
“See you on the other side” say’s he.
And so we will, because of our mutual best friend- Jesus.
Foot Note:
The ode above will be presented at Steve’s “Celebration of Life” July 27th 1:00pm-3:00pm. At our last meeting Steve said I should share something but not take more than two minuets. Summing up a 35 year friendship took three…
Steve provided his testimony Here . He resisted Jesus as a 22 year old long haired hippie with a nose ring, running naked on a commune with a 13 year old girlfriend. Until he realized he was being pursued by Jesus. He was a seeker of truth and found Truth seeking him…Its quite a story!
You can also find his life story on U-tub in 5 chapters here.
Some notes on perfection:
What is the Hebrew word for perfection?
Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology – Perfect, Perfection
Two word-groups in the Hebrew Old Testament are translated “perfect” or “perfection”: tamam [m’T] and calal [l;l’K]. The former connotes wholeness, soundness, integrity, and often takes on ethical significance; the latter connotes completeness, perfection, and can carry the aesthetic sense of comeliness or beauty. Nearly all New Testament occurrences translate Greek words sharing the tel- stem, from which some half-dozen words are formed that bear the sense of completion or wholeness.
Dr. Skip Moen provides his insights on the use of the word perfect in scripture in the following- from his daily Hebrew words studies.
https://skipmoen.com/2021/05/good-enough-most-of-the-time/
Perfect – Perhaps the most insidious mistranslation of a Torah concept is the idea of perfection. Theology is filled with this thoroughly Greek idea. So is rabbinic Judaism. Thanks to the disease of Hellenism, the Parmenidean virus has permanently infected most religious thinking. Finally established as a necessary characteristic of God Himself, perfection has become of goal of religion, a completely impossible goal that condemns every human being to ontological failure. Take, for example, this homage to Parmenides disguised as Christian doctrine in the words of R. C. Sproul:
Be perfect! The clarion call of religion. The impossible demand from a God who made sure you could never achieve His requirement, namely, “Be like Me!” And we bought it. For thousands of years, we have struggled under the impossible demand. We have decried our situation, inevitably concluding that being born was a sin, a punishment designed to keep us in our place, fractured and flawed until God Himself decides (but of course He really doesn’t decide, does He? I mean it’s all determined in advance so that nothing ever changes for Him) who will be chosen and who won’t.
Amazingly, when we actually read the Bible and stop thinking like Parmenides we discover that God is involved in all kinds of changes. So are we. We do the best we can most of the time—and it’s enough! It’s not enough for the Greek thinkers. They need a reason to tell us we are a mistake, that we aren’t perfect. But it seems to be enough for God. That makes me wonder what kind of god religion actually worships.
Fortunately, the practice of religious beliefs (not the theology) isn’t so stupid. God changes and so do we. How else could we possibly be interested in Him or He in us? As the prophets constantly remind us, idols are those human constructions that never change.
Topical Index: perfection, change, Parmenides, R. C. Sproul, James 1:4
[1] Neal Cushman, “Canonicity and Qumran: Evidence from the Damascus Document,” pp. 6-7., citing Alex Deasley, The Shape of Qumran Theology (Carlisle, Cumbria, Great Britain: Paternoster, 2000), p. 214.
Consider also Camille Paglia’s comment:
“The Greeks made gods’s in man’s image. The Hebrews made men in God’s image.”
Steve’s Testimony can be found here:
works of words 