Philippians 1 and other

The letter of Paul to the Philippians is a letter of love and appreciation. He is not pounding on a problem or something similar to many of his other letters. My touch point in this chapter is NLT vs. 21 "For to me, living means living for Christ and dying is even better." The way I remember it in rsv or other is "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." I often ponder over this one. I remember pondering over it when I had to preach it in seminary. I love life, I want to live for Christ. Heaven is going to be fine, just fine, wonderful, extraordinary... but I can wait. In loving life I am not wanting to avoid heaven. But I am here for a purpose. So I want to be doing that purpose till I die. Ministry keeps me busy and challenged. The current economics are tough on all of us. But we need to live with purpose. I need to live with purpose. I live to support ministry with my friends in Uganda and to see to it that rural pastors get trained. I said without thinking the other day,"I would rather lose my right leg than give up the work in Uganda." I guess that is pretty passionate. I caught this quote today on a leadership CD I was listening to while driving. IF WE ARE NOT ANXIOUSLY ENGAGED IN A GOOD CAUSE WE'VE NO BUSINESS BEING ALIVE ANYWAY. I love the sentiment. I love the passion. I believe it is true and yet to say it does not have a lot of mercy gift in it. I tried to track down the source or at least where it had come from and it appears to have come in part from some Mormon teachings. I can live with that. I just love the passion. So what cause has you anxiously engaged and how passionate are you?