Books by Dale Harris

Books by Dale Harris
A Feast of Epiphanies

Though I Walk, A Novel

Daytime Moons and Other Celestial Anomalies, a book of poems

Second Wind

Second Wind
An album of songs both old and new. Recorded in 2021, a year of major transition for me, these songs explore the many vicissitudes of the spiritual life,. It's about the mountaintop moments and the Holy Saturday sunrises, the doors He opens that no one can close, and those doors He's closed that will never open again. You can click the image above to give it a listen.

The Song Became a Child

The Song Became a Child
A collection of Christmas songs I wrote and recorded during the early days of the pandemic lockdown in the spring of 2020. Click the image to listen.

There's a Trick of the Light I'm Learning to Do

There's a Trick of the Light I'm Learning to Do
This is a collection of songs I wrote and recorded in January - March, 2020 while on sabbatical from ministry. They each deal with a different aspect or expression of the Gospel. Click on the image above to listen.

Three Hands Clapping

Three Hands Clapping
This is my latest recording project (released May 27, 2019). It is a double album of 22 songs, which very roughly track the story of my life... a sort of musical autobiography, so to speak. Click the album image to listen.

Ghost Notes

Ghost Notes
A collections of original songs I wrote in 2015, and recorded with the FreeWay Musical Collective. Click the album image to listen.

inversions

inversions
Recorded in 2014, these songs are sort of a chronicle of my journey through a pastoral burn-out last winter. They deal with themes of mental-health, spiritual burn-out and depression, but also with the inexorable presence of God in the midst of darkness. Click the album art to download.

soundings

soundings
click image to download
"soundings" is a collection of songs I recorded in September/October of 2013. Dealing with themes of hope, ache, trust and spiritual loss, the songs on this album express various facets of my journey with God.

bridges

bridges
Click to download.
"Bridges" is a collection of original songs I wrote in the summer of 2011, during a soul-searching trip I took out to Alberta; a sort of long twilight in the dark night of the soul. I share it here in hopes these musical reflections on my own spiritual journey might be an encouragement to others: the sun does rise, blood-red but beautiful.

echoes

echoes
Prayers, poems and songs (2005-2009). Click to download
"echoes" is a collection of songs I wrote during my time studying at Briercrest Seminary (2004-2009). It's called "echoes" partly because these songs are "echoes" of times spent with God from my songwriting past, but also because there are musical "echoes" of hymns, songs or poems sprinkled throughout the album. Listen closely and you'll hear them.

Accidentals

Accidentals
This collection of mostly blues/rock/folk inspired songs was recorded in the spring and summer of 2015. I call it "accidentals" because all of the songs on this project were tunes I have had kicking around in my notebooks for many years but had never found a "home" for on previous albums. You can click the image to download the whole album.

Random Reads

Chariots of Fire and Other Things Unseen: A Devotional Thought

In 2 Kings 6:11-20, we get one of those stories that is profoundly mysterious, and profoundly moving because of the mystery.

The Prophet Elisha and his servant are surrounded by a terrifying army come to haul him off to the king of Syria. Things look hopeless; the situation desperate; the odds overwhelming. And Elisha's servant tells him so, failing into despair. But Elisha, entirely unperturbed, says: don't worry, because "those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then he asks the Lord to open the young man's eyes to see just who, exactly, is fighting on their side. And this despairing servant looks again and sees the hills thronged with a host of heavenly warriors in flaming chariots, the Lord's angelic army hemming them in and guarding them.

There's actually a beautiful irony here that I can't resist pointing out: after the servants eyes are opened to see them, the angels blind the Syrians, and Elisha leads them captive to Israel, where he asks the Lord to open *their eyes* in turn, to see their predicament.  God blinds the eyes of the faithless-seeing and opens the eyes of the faithful-blind.

Anyways, it's a beautiful story and artfully told, and it always leaves me thinking about the heavenly host that surrounds God's people, unseen, often unnoticed, but still (I believe) very real. Sometimes I feel like Elisha's servant, cowed by what seem overwhelming odds and tempted to despair, and this morning it felt like Elisha was praying for me, too, as much as for him: Lord, open his eyes that he might see the heavenly reality he moves in, the angelic host that surrounds him, the odds as they really stand. There are things unseen at work in the world around us (our battle is not against flesh and blood....) and in those moments of spiritual despondency, this reminder that His angels stand guard on our behalf is moving and strengthening.

 

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