The VOICE Conference > the VOICE staff blog > Articles by: Karen Kallberg

About Karen Kallberg

Karen helped found the VOICE conference back in 1999 and has served on staff ever since, her primary role now being conference advisor and internship instructor. She and her husband Luke live in Saint Louis with their three children. When she's not brainstorming ways to improve the conference, she enjoys exploring the city, trying local restaurants, singing with her family, reading books by Tim Keller, and spending quality time with family and friends.

five

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Karen Kallberg

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October 11th is my wedding anniversary! Marriage has been good, but not quite what I expected when I said “I do” five years ago. Here are five ways that God has been teaching me to live out His reality in my marriage…

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1) Trust God with the things that are most important to me.

Luke’s first “competition” turned out to be VOICE. We made a decision early on to transfer the leadership from me to him, but that also meant me letting him do things differently than I would. That was rough. In the process, however, God taught me to make marriage my first ministry and trust Him to work through other people in other ways at VOICE.

2) We need community.

Before I had Arianna, I had a miscarriage. I chose not to talk about it, thinking that would make it easier. It didn’t. Over the course of that year, I learned that Luke and I need the body of Christ to challenge our perspective, to encourage us when we’re sad, and to point us to Christ in our struggles.

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3) We can’t save each other.

You may have heard Luke and I talk about our battle against pornography. I once believed that if I was a good wife, Luke wouldn’t be tempted in this way. I was wrong. Even when I bent over backwards to bless him, it wasn’t enough. One night after a hard talk, I remember thinking, “There’s nothing I can do to save him!” And that was when God replied, “That’s right…but he has a Savior who can.” That was a pivotal moment for me—and the first time I realized how amazing it is to have a God like that.

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4) I can’t forgive unless I understand I’ve been forgiven.

I never thought I had a problem with anger, but over the last few years, I’ve struggled a lot with bitterness. Whenever I felt wronged, I’d find myself in a cycle of hurt, anger, and self-justification. The only way I was able to climb out of that cycle was when God opened my eyes to the price He paid to forgive me. Only when I understand my debt to Christ can I find grace to forgive others.

5) Marriage gets better with time!

Before I got married, a well-meaning friend warned me that marriage would be hard. He was right. The good news, however, is that God also designed marriage to be good. Even though courtship was fun and exciting, God has used the joys and struggles in marriage to deepen our love for each other and for Him.

130814 lkK-01 height=”213″ />And on that note, I’d like to say, “Happy anniversary, Darling. I love you more today than all of our yesterdays.”

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Wedding photos by Katherine Fan | Glacier National Park photo by Noel Kallberg

Les Miserables [movie review]

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Karen Kallberg

Les Miserables has been out in America and Hong Kong for over a month now and will soon be released in Taiwan. A few thoughts for those who haven’t seen it yet…

I don’t know how you watch movies, but if you love the musical like I do, you may find yourself focusing on how the actors and actresses deliver the music. You may also be wowed by the way the movie was directed and produced. If you don’t like musicals, you may wonder why anyone would waste two plus hours watching people sing. If you don’t watch many movies, you may find the sin in this movie disturbing.

Whatever the case may be, if you see this movie, I hope you don’t miss the heart of the story.

It’s the story of Valjean, a man who was thrown into prison for stealing a loaf of bread for his sister’s starving child. What began as a 5-year sentence turned into 19 years on the chain gang. When he was finally released, he discovered that he still wasn’t free: society wasn’t about to forgive him for what he had done.

After facing rejection at every turn, he runs into a priest who not only welcomes him in, but offers him kindness and trust. Hardened by his recent experiences, Valjean steals the priest’s silver, only to be caught and dragged back by the police.

Enter this scene.

What the chain gang failed to do in 19 years, this priest did in a moment: for the first time, Valjean is confronted with the darkness in his soul. When he stole the loaf of bread, he felt justified. This time, however, he knows he’s guilty. In his soliloquy following this scene, he sings,

One word from him and I’d be back
Beneath the lash, upon the rack
Instead he offers me my freedom
I feel my shame inside me like a knife

This is the power of forgiveness. Like Valjean, it’s easy to justify the sin in our lives. We don’t think we’re as bad as “some people.” We find some rules ridiculous and meant to be broken. As long as we think that our sin is merely breaking the law, we don’t have the power to change.

What we need is to come face to face with our Priest, who not only overlooks our blatant sin but offers us silver candlesticks when we deserve to be thrown back in prison. Repentance comes only when we realize that we have broken God’s heart. That is the beginning of true freedom. That is how we learn to live like God is real.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ– by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5).

To 怕怕 or Not To 怕怕

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Karen Kallberg

A few weeks ago, Arianna started saying, “怕怕” (“pa-pa”) first for any number of noises that scared her, and now for any excuse to get me to hold her. Some sounds– like our washer buzzing– can be a little alarming, but other sounds– like the quiet horn on my iPod announcing I had just received an email– are really no big deal.

Since she can’t communicate very well yet, I’ve had to figure out what was real fear and what was imagined, what she should be afraid of and what she shouldn’t. Most of the time, I would say, “Don’t be afraid, that’s just an airplane.” Other times, however, I found myself saying, “Don’t be afraid, Mommy’s right here.”

Watching Arianna go through this stage has made me think through my own fears—fear of losing my family, fear of uncertainty or insecurity, fear of what others might think of me… I’m realizing that if I really believe that God is real (and that He is “right here” with me), then some of my fears are unfounded.

Think about it—if I really believe that God works all things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28), then I can rest in the reality that He has a purpose for everything that happens in my life—good or bad—and that He will give me the grace to go through it (2 Corinthians 12:9).

If I really believe that God provides for those who seek Him (Matthew 6), then my security should be in Him and not in my own ability (or my husband’s) to provide.

If I believe that God is my Creator and my Redeemer and that I owe Him my very life (Romans 5:8), how can the opinion of man matter when the God of the universe cares enough to have a relationship with me?

So when you find yourself feeling afraid or worried, take a minute to assess whether that fear is grounded in a right understanding of who God is.

“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7 ESV)

Revisiting the Lily Field

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Karen Kallberg

Most of you know me the way I am now—you’ve watched me teach songs in the Children’s Institutes, you’ve spent a month (or more) with me at VOICE…

But none of that was part of my plan. I had life all figured out—until my parents decided to start home education my junior year of high school. When the rest of my friends went off to college, I found myself going to Taiwan for a “short-term missions trip” with my family. No one ever told me it would last 13 years.

For this post, I want to share something I wrote a couple years after high school. I didn’t know what the future held, but I can tell you now that knowing the One who holds your future makes all the difference.

We huddled together on the curb, sheltered from the drizzle by a few umbrellas. I looked back and forth between the long graceful calla lilies just peeking over the edge of plastic buckets and the wire-fenced field six to twelve inches deep with water where I could pick my own. I pulled on rubber boots and overalls, then sloshed down the aisles, choosing the tall ones, just beginning to show their white petals, but not yet in bloom. My fingers followed the stem to its base beneath the water and carefully tugged upward until the prize came free into my hands. Three elegant hand-picked lilies now bloom in plastic juice bottles in our dining room. They remind me of something I recently read in My Utmost For His Highest:

“‘Consider the lilies of the field’—they grow where they are put. Many of us refuse to grow where we are put, consequently we take root nowhere. Jesus says that if we obey the life God has given us, He will look after all the other things.”(Oswald Chambers)

For the past couple years, I have been praying that God would reveal His purpose for my life. Why did He take me out of school? Why aren’t I in college? Why did He move me to Taiwan? Will people look down on me, because I don’t have a “proper education”? Will I ever get a “real job”? What in the world am I doing here?

As I looked at my lilies, I realized my faithlessness. If centuries of lilies have blossomed under the kind hand of our Creator, how much more my Father cares for me! Through the years, He has given me the same answer to my questions, “Seek ye first My kingdom…and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33) So I am the Lord’s lily, and He wants me to grow and blossom for His glory no matter where He chooses to place me.

Saving Edmund

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Karen Kallberg

When we were little, my mother would gather us together at bedtime to read a chapter from The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I remember wondering what Turkish Delight tasted like; I worried that the wolves would catch Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, Peter, Susan, and Lucy; and I cried when the White Witch killed Aslan on the Stone Table. But perhaps I remember best of all how much I despised Edmund for allowing selfishness to turn him into a liar and a traitor.

Over Christmas break, when we were visiting Luke’s family, we watched bits and pieces of the three most recent Narnia movies with his sister Sarah. In the first movie, Lucy and Susan wake up to discover that their brother Edmund had been rescued in the night. Even though I had seen the movie multiple times, I found myself strangely gripped by what they saw…

Even now, this scene draws me in. I want to know what Aslan was saying and how Edmund felt. I want to know what that first encounter between the Lion and the traitor was like.

Often times when I watch movies, I find myself identifying myself with one or more characters. I don’t know that I ever identified strongly with any of the characters in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe— maybe a little of Lucy and a little of Peter? This time, however, I realized for the first time that I was not Lucy, not Peter, not Susan– but Edmund.

I am the one who is selfish. I am the one who puts my wants before the needs of others. I am the one who cares more about now than eternity. I am the one who needs to be rescued. I am the one who cost Jesus His life.

Too often we read the Bible and go through life thinking we are really not that bad. We can always point our finger at someone who is a much worse sinner than we are. But that is not what the Gospel tells us. No, we are Edmund. We are Zacchaeus. We are Judas Iscariot. We are Barabbas. We are Saul of Tarsus. As long as we think there is any good in us, we will never truly grasp the wonder of the Gospel. Christ died for sinners– and that is why I owe Him everything.

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” (1 Timothy 1:15)

discovering my other gods

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Karen Kallberg

I have a problem with greed.

God’s been showing me through the book Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller. In his chapter on money, he writes,

As a pastor I’ve had people come to me to confess that they struggle with almost every kind of sin. Almost. I cannot recall anyone ever coming to me and saying, “I spend too much money on myself. I think my greedy lust for money is harming my family, my soul, and people around me.” Greed hides itself from the victim. The money god’s modus operandi includes blindness to your own heart.

At first I thought, “What?! Me? I don’t have a problem with greed! I’m the girl who still doesn’t have an iPod (much less an iPhone) and would rather not get a second car.”

As I read on, however, God has been showing me otherwise.

I could list a dozen examples, but I’ll just share about one of the first times God confronted me with this problem after we got married.

It was Luke’s birthday. We were driving home from Chicago, and I was at the wheel. Our little 4-cylinder Nissan had a hard time climbing the hills of Missouri. To help it along, I would speed down one hill to make it to the top of the next.

Things were going swimmingly until I found a cop waiting at the top of one of those hills. I hit the brakes, but it was too late. I saw lights flashing behind me, so I pulled over and got my first speeding ticket.

Luke never blamed me. He never told me that I should have been more cautious. He never berated me for wasting his hard-earned money.

But I couldn’t forgive myself. Why? Not so much because I had broken the law, but because I got caught and the penalty was going to put a dent in our savings.

Perhaps you think this is no big deal, but it is to God. He’s using this book to expose more than the god of greed in my life.

So what am I going to do about it? There’s not much I can do except confess my sin and let God replace those gods with Himself.

I challenge you to read this book too—but be prepared to take a good hard uncomfortable look at your heart.

Preparing for VOICE 2011

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Karen Kallberg

Twelve years ago, I found myself in Chicago, trying to plan our first summer conference. It wasn’t known as VOICE yet—back then, it was called CLEC (Character Leadership English Conference). I really had no idea what I was doing. My father wanted a conference that would provide training in character, leadership, and English, and so I learned to make his dream come true—one call, one spreadsheet, one day at a time.

Now, nine conferences and hundreds of spreadsheets later, I must confess that I care a lot about the logistics. I care about our design. I care about the order of events. I care about how things are presented. But sometimes, I care too much.

This year, God has blessed me with a daughter who needs love and care. The time I once devoted to details must now be shared with her.

So as we prepare to dive into VOICE 2011, I find myself having to give up certain aspects of the conference that were (and still are) important to me. I have to remind myself that God cares far more about the people involved in VOICE than He cares about my perfectly planned details. While good logistics may make for a smoother conference, only God can change a person’s life.

If you’ll be at VOICE this year, I need you to help me remember that. And if you won’t be there, please pray that God will continue to use VOICE to clarify the message of the Gospel.

Here’s to another great conference!

the mommy dilemma

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Karen Kallberg

On Februray 4th, God blessed us with a beautiful daughter, whom we named Arianna. In the months leading up to her arrival, I did everything I could to get ready– I read books on what to do, talked to friends about their experience, exercised and ate a baby-friendly diet, which is probably why she weighed 8 lb 10 oz at birth– more than my brother when he was born!

Even with all that preparation, I wasn’t quite prepared for all the conflicting opinions. American doctors say I should eat one thing; Chinese medicine says that would be bad for my body. Some say babies should sleep on their tummies; others say they should sleep on their back. One group says babies should be fed on demand; another group says babies should be put on a schedule.

What to do? How do I know if I’m making the right decision for Arianna and for our family? The more I talked to people about what they did, the less certain I felt about making a decision. I began worrying that my decision might have a negative effect upon our daughter.

When family came to visit, I worried that Arianna might get sick from all the germs people were bringing into our house. Just as I was breathing a sigh of relief after they left, Luke caught a cold. Every time he sneezed or coughed, I winced. What if I catch his cold? What if Arianna gets sick?

In the midst of my worries, a verse broke through like a light in the darkness: “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You” (Psalm 56:3). Even though I don’t know for certain what’s best, God does and He loves my daughter far more than I ever will.

As a new mommy, living like God is real means remembering that fact and trusting Him to lead us one decision at a time.

embracing community

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Karen Kallberg

When I was still single, I remember hearing about different friends who were devastated when they miscarried their first baby. For some reason, I thought that if they had just kept their pregnancy a secret, they wouldn’t have been so disappointed. And so I made up my mind that when I was pregnant, I would try to keep it a secret until I was pretty sure it was “safe” to tell.

Last March, I miscarried my first child. True to my resolution, aside from Luke, I didn’t tell many people. In fact, it took months for me to tell my own family. I tried to be brave and strong, but the disappointment was devastating– especially since I bore it alone.

When I told a friend about it later that fall, she was shocked. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?” she asked. “When I found out I was pregnant, I told people right away, because I knew I’d need the church’s support if anything were to happen when my husband was deployed.”

I’ve been pondering her words ever since. Why did I think it’d be better to tough things out on my own when God had designed a community of support for me in the church? Is it really better to hold those struggles inside? Is it really Christian to be “strong” by being private about my difficulties?

These last few months, as Luke and I have been adjusting to a lower income, his new schedule for work and school, the changes that will come with a baby, and certain issues in our marriage, I’ve discovered that I really can’t shoulder my problems on my own. Aside from casting all my cares on Christ (1 Peter 5:7), I’m also learning to humble myself and share my struggles with the believers God has placed in my life.

Sometimes, living like God is real means learning to embrace the church community by being vulnerable about our struggles and weaknesses. Don’t tough it out alone.

Irrational Love

Posted on September 1, 2010 by Karen Kallberg

I remember our baby in a crib who’s fast asleep,
He doesn’t see my tears, can’t hear me weep
And I wondered, “Was it worth it that we chose his life not yours?”
And I felt you smiling with me and answer, “Of course.”

It was the first day of VOICE. I was sitting in TESOL auditions as my brother unveiled one of the most important songs in his newest musical The Inheritance, based on the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. In Tim’s adaptation, the father finds himself wrestling with the rebellion and desertion of his younger son as well as possible professional ruin, so he questions whether he and his wife had made the right choice in giving life to their second son at the cost of her own at childbirth.

At the time, I was nearly 11 weeks pregnant, so the song touched a very sensitive spot in my heart. All my life, I’ve been learning to love others– family, friends, classmates, teachers, colleagues– but most of it was based on the other person giving or responding similarly at least in some small way. Even with Luke, I fell in love because he first loved me.

At this particular point in Tim’s story, however, we’re faced with the quandary of reconciling the sacrifice of a loving mother for her ungrateful and selfish son, who was recklessly destroying his father’s life work. Part of me cringed from the injustice of it. The other part of me, however, experienced for the first time what it means to be a mother– to love someone I have never met, not because of any merit of their own or because they love me, but simply because that is how God first loved us.

That is what Christ has done for us. He doesn’t love us because of anything we have or can do for Him. He didn’t choose me because I was a good girl. No, God demonstrated His irrational and wasteful love in that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).