The Ben Fisher girls sit on a fallen tree trunk and Trail Life USA boys cavort on a rock in the background along the streambed at Cloudland Canyon State Park near Trenton, Ga. (Photos David Tulis)

A snake darting across or path gets a close inspection Saturday on our day hike in Cloudland Canyon.)

A snake darting across our path gets a close inspection Saturday on our hike in Cloudland Canyon.

Oriental tourists and American children from Chattanooga enjoy a waterfall at a park controlled Georgia state government, which bans any swimming in this pool.

Oriental tourists, left, and Americans from Chattanooga enjoy a waterfall at a park controlled by Georgia state government, which bans swimming in this pool.

My son bears with me as I request we take a photo together at the top of a gorge near Trenton, Ga.

A Tulis boy bears with me as we take a snapshot at the lip of a gorge near Trenton, Ga.

Does your will sometimes keep you out of tune with your surroundings? I am importing cheap worldly interests into a remarkable setting and depriving myself of human contact and a spirit of thankfulness to God.

It’s Saturday, and I am taking a hike with a son and members of two other families of our Trail Life USA Troop. We’re at Cloudland Canyon state park, near Trenton, Ga.

By David Tulis / AM 1240 Hot News Talk Radio

It’s warm and mostly sunny. We are under canopies of trees as we descend hundreds of steps toward stream and waterfall.

In my backpack I carry sections of The Wall Street Journal and a Chattanooga Times Free Press, thinking that in our frequent stops and down time I have time to get caught up.

At one of the waterfalls signs from state government of Georgia prohibit swimming. But we go downstream. We throw down our backpacks, pry our feet out of our shoes. Most of us dip into chilled waters. For about 90 minutes eight children play. Our party eats lunch.

I feel badly about pulling up my newspapers, finally, as if I am bored. But I read several articles and feel refreshed at the leisure of reading.

Would it not have been better to have chatted some with a second dad who declines to swim, Travis Updegrove, a homeschooler who works on nuclear industry? Instead of eyes glued to the newsprint, would I not have done better to have tried to chat with Ben Fisher, our troop leader who indeed is busy supervising several sons and daughters?

Raise my eyes, flutter my tongue and talk with live human beings among the rocks in that cathedral setting of a canyon bottom. Or bear down on inky, damp pages.

I didn’t consider anything in prayer, and don’t read a chapter in the Scripture, a copy of which is carried in my phone.

The psalmist connects God’s sovereign government with the world of nature. “The Lord lifts up the humble; He casts the wicked down to the ground. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; Sing praises on the harp to our God, Who covers the heavens with clouds, Who prepares rain for the earth, Who makes grass to grow on the mountains. He gives to the beast its food, And to the young ravens that cry. He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, In those who hope in His mercy” (Psalm 147:6-12).

He is mighty, “He casts out His hail like morsels; Who can stand before His cold?” In the next chapter David says, “Praise the Lord from the earth, You great sea creatures and all the depths; Fire and hail, snow and clouds; Stormy wind, fulfilling His word; Mountains and all hills; Fruitful trees and all cedars; Beasts and all cattle; Creeping things and flying fowl; Kings of the earth and all peoples; Princes and all judges of the earth; *** Let them praise the name of the Lord, For His name alone is exalted; His glory is above the earth and heaven. “ (Psalm 148:7-13)