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

Living the Whole-hearted Life, a devotional thought

There's a very strange story in 2 Kings 13:11-20 that gets me thinking about the ways and the times I "low-ball" my expectations of God. Elisha's on his deathbed and the king of Israel comes for a final visit (Israel is, incidentally, under siege again by the Arameans). So Elisha tells the king to take a bow and arrow and strike the ground with it. It's an altogether bizarre request, but King Jehoash complies. 

I can only imagine Jehoash's arched, incredulous eyebrow as he tentatively taps the ground with the arrow, watching Elisha skeptically the whole while. I have to imagine it, because, although it's not stated, it's strongly implied that Jehoash's response to Elisha's directive was a half-hearted flop. He only tapped the ground three times instead of five or six, Elisha says, and because of that, he'll only win three battles against Aram, but he won't win the war. 

I used to think this was a somewhat capricious thing for Elisha to do. How could Jehoash have known that the fate of his entire country rested on his hitting the ground six times with a bow and arrow rather than only three? But this morning it occurred to me that there is a deeper kind of "half-hearted obedience" going on in Jehoash's life. In 2 Kings 2:11, we're told that he did not lead Israel away from the idolatrous evil that the kings before him had committed. He continued in the sins of his fathers. 

With that in mind, this is my reading of the arrow-tapping incident: Jehoash has woefully low expectations of YHWH's ability to deliver, prosper, and keep his people at all--period-- and this is evident, not in his feeble response to the arrow-tapping thing-- but in Baalism that he's allowed to continue unchecked in his kingdom (why not keep Baal in your corner, just in case YHWH can't pull through, right?). And the deep spiritual half-heartedness of his life shows up in his superficial half-heartedness with the arrow thing, only "playing along" with Elisha and tapping the ground three times...you know ... to humour YHWH's prophet. 

And the thing is: God is prepared to live up to the low expectations of his king.  Jehoash will win a battle or three, but Aram will win the war. And it leads me to wonder:  where, and when, and how I'm like Jehoash. In what areas of my life doI set the bar pitifully low for God, and how are my low expectations of him evident in my half-hearted obedience to him?

Because if God can put his finger on that for us, I think that's where we'll start to discover what a whole-hearted life with him might look like.

 

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