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

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

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

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

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

When the Tough get Going, a Devotional Thought

There's an especially sobering story in 2 Kings 6:30-33 that's meant I think, to send a spiritual chill down the spine.  The city of Samaria is under siege by the Syrians. There's a horrible famine, the people are starving, and in his despair, the King sends soldiers to have Elisha the Prophet beheaded.

This seems a bit capricious, until you remember that in the passage just before this story (the chariots of fire episode), a huge contingency of the Syrian army had fallen into the King's hands, and he stayed their slaughter at Elisha's command (6:21-22). Elisha told him to let them go, and faithfully he did, and now here they are, in greater numbers, attacking his city. The siege itself is one of the most gut-wrenching and horrifying episodes in the whole Bible, and when the king hears a story about a mother forced to eat her own child just to survive, he finally snaps: if he hadn't listened to Elisha and spared those Syrian warriors, maybe they wouldn't be at his doorstep now, terrorizing and dehumanizing his people. So, like I say, he sends his men to have him beheaded.

Verse 33, in particular is especially haunting: "All this evil is from the Lord," the King says, "Why should I wait on him any longer?" Back in 6:21, he was quite happy to obey the Word of God and spare the Syrian warriors (he even called Elisha "my father" back then), but now, in the face of what must have been unimaginable stress, pain, terror and despair, he's ready to turn his back on God altogether. After all: look where obedience got him.

It gets me wondering if, and how, I'm like that King. Like him, I'm usually willing to obey when the going's good; would I, like him, let go as easily in the midst of such pain (it's easy to sniff self-righteously at this poor king, sitting here in my brightly-lit living room, but it's pretty hard to imagine myself on the city wall in 6:29 and not feel my blood run cold with his)? So I'm praying ahead of time, that God will grant me deep faithfulness if and when I go through desperate times, and despite what struggles may come, he'll keep me holding on. It doesn't hurt to plan ahead.

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