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

On Waiting for the Plan, a devotional thought

 The other day I was reading through Psalm 106 and I came across a line that gave me pause. The Psalm recalls Israel’s exodus from Egypt, how the Lord brought the people out of slavery and delivered them through the Red Sea. It explains how, having seen the Lord sweep away their enemies with the water of the sea, the people “believed his promises and sang his praise” (v. 12).

So far so good; but things make a sudden U-turn in verse 13: “They soon forgot what he had done,” it says, “and did not wait for his ‘plan to unfold.’” The story should be familiar to anyone who has a working knowledge of the Book of Exodus (which the Psalm seems to be referencing here). Israel had seen the Lord’s mighty act of deliverance, but because they couldn’t see a way through the desert they began to grumble, forgetting the mighty acts of deliverance he’d already accomplished for them.

It’s a familiar story. What was less familiar to me was the wording of the second half of the verse, “they did not wait for his plan to unfold.” I’ve never quite heard it put that way: in their grumbling for bread and their longing to return to Egypt, the people were “unwilling to let the Lord’s plan unfold in their lives.” Such a curious but powerful way to put it. 

I looked it up to be sure, and it turns out that my translation (the NIV) is on its own in this rendering.  Most translations say something like “they did not wait for his counsel.” “Counsel” is probably a more literal translation there. The Hebrew word in question is ‘aṣaṯ, which usually refers to the counsel an advisor might give a king.  When it’s applied to the Lord specifically, however, it usually has the sense of “purpose,” “intention,” or (roughly) “plan.” After all, God keeps his own counsel. No one acts as his advisor, and when he gives his counsel to us it’s not as an advisor to a king, but as a master to his servants. 

So the NIV is paraphrasing, but only slightly, when it says that Israel’s problem in the desert was that they were unwilling to wait for his plan to unfold. And even though most other translations render the verse more literally, and simply say that Israel refused to “wait on his counsel,” I prefer the NIV’s take on the matter.

Not just because it seems to handle the context for the word ‘aṣaṯ better, but because it rings so true on a spiritual level. How many of us, I wonder, have found ourselves facing a difficult trial like Israel did in her desert wanderings, and like Israel, we too started grumbling against God because we couldn’t believe that God had a plan? We couldn’t see how all the difficulties fit into his plan, or how his plan was unfolding through it; and even if we could see it, abstractly, we we’re willing to wait for it to unfold in front of us.

It’s a sobering thought. Especially for the church today, facing all kinds of challenges and question-marks because of covid restrictions and pandemic lockdowns. Does God have an ‘aṣaṯfor us in this, Psalm 106 verse 13 might ask us to ask? If so, can we see that he does?  And if we can, are we willing to wait for him to unfold it in our lives?


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