[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 194 (Tuesday, December 18, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H16810]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           JOY DIVINE: REMEMBERING THE LATE HON. JULIA CARSON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Baldwin). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rush) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. RUSH. Madam Speaker, there have been many characterizations and 
descriptions of our departed colleague Julia Carson. But let me just 
tell you how I view Julia Carson. For me Julia Carson epitomized the 
Christian value of joy divine. Joy divine, the Bible calls it an 
unspeakable joy. It's the kind of joy that the Congress, the world 
can't give you and the world can't take it away. This joy is based on 
your faith. Julia Carson had, in my estimation, joy divine because she 
understood the meaning of the Scripture when it states: ``All things 
work together for good to those who love the Lord and those who are 
called according to His purpose.''
  What is His purpose, one might ask? Well, He makes it pretty clear in 
the Old Testament. He says: ``What do I require of thee, o man, but to 
love mercy, do justly, and walk humbly with your God?''
  Madam Speaker, Julia Carson had the joy divine. She epitomized it. 
She represented it. Because she knew that everything that we do, the 
things that we bind on Earth, we bind in heaven. And she was really not 
working for just her constituents, but she was, indeed, working for 
eternal life. And now she is at a better place in the heavens with her 
God.
  And I can just, in my own imagination, imagine Julia when she got to 
heaven how the angels erupted in applause because of the work that she 
had done while she lived here on Earth.
  Madam Speaker, Julia Carson did something that was almost impossible 
in the few years that she served in this great House. She made this 
great House even greater because of her commitment, her dedication, her 
resolve, her leadership, her insight, her compassion, those things that 
make one great.
  Madam Speaker, I know that in heaven when she approached the throne 
of grace, when she approached the company of her Lord and Savior, I can 
hear the words spoken to her right now in the old way. I can hear her 
Lord and her master telling her: Julia, servant, servant, well done. 
You did an extraordinary job under ordinary conditions. Servant, well 
done.

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