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

From the Beginning: A Devotional Commentary on the Book of Genesis (VI)

The other day I was reading Genesis 12:1, where God calls Abram out of Haran.  I've read it many times before, but this time I was using the most recent NIV translation, and noticed something I hadn't before:  verse 12:1 reads, "The Lord had said to Abram, leave your country and go to the land I will show you."  It caught me a bit, because the translation I remember reading (an older NIV version) was always, "The Lord said to Abram..." but between the last edition of the NIV and this one, the translators must have felt that the Hebrew verb there, 'amar (it's in the Hebrew imperfect tense) is better translated with an English perfect, not an English past.

The Lord had said.  (I checked other translations and the KJV also goes with "had said" whereas the NASB, ESV, and others go with "the Lord said.")

I don't want to make an interpretive mountain out of a verb-tense-mole-hill here, but the reason it struck me is simply this:  if the verse is better translated as "had said," it implies that Abram's obeying the Lord and leaving Haran may not have followed immediately and directly upon the Lord calling him out.  To get a feel for this consider the difference: "I told my kids to do the dishes and they did them" or "I had told my kids to do the dishes and they did them."  The difference is subtle but not negligible.  In the second case, it's not as clear that the dishes were being done after the request, only that a) a request was made, and b) at some point the request was followed.

So what?  Well: it just got me thinking that sometimes, the fulfillment of God's call on our lives doesn't follow nicely and immediately and smoothly and seamlessly after he makes the call.  The Lord had called Abram to leave Ur (v.1) and (at some point, presumably...) Abram left (v.4).

This is encouraging especially for any of us who feel or have felt at times, that God's call on their life has stalled out, maybe, or that it's not coming to fruition in as timely a way as they had hoped.  Be patient.  Who knows, actually, who much time passed between Abram's call and his leaving Haran?  But also be challenged:  before the Lord's call could see its fulfillment, Abram had to get off his backside and start packing for parts unknown...

 

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