What Goes Around Comes Around

By J.B. Hixson, Ph.D.
06/21/2022

“Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him.” (Proverbs 26:27)

When my children were younger, I used to plan an occasional “date with dad” for my girls. I remember one occasion when I took the two oldest bowling. The joy on their faces as they watched their bowling balls make their way down the alley toward the pins was priceless. My eight-year-old’s rolls were more like throws. With one hand, she slung the ball down the lane as hard as she could, as if she was throwing the discus in the Olympics. It would actually bounce the first several feet before settling into a haphazard slide towards the pins, ricocheting off of the bumpers from one side of the lane to the other.

My six-year-old was much more deliberate and focused. She used the two-handed granny-roll method. Her ball would roll about 2 or 3 miles per hour, according to the computer screen at the bowling alley which displayed the speed of the ball. Sometimes it would take an eternity for her ball to finally reach the pins. The whole time she would watch intently, bent over at the waist, one hand on each knee, waiting eagerly to see how many pins would fall. The problem is, my six-year-old’s rolls were so slow that occasionally the ball would stop rolling before it reached the pins. It is what they call a dead ball. When that happened, an attendant had to walk down the edge of the gutter until he reached her ball and give it a little boost.

On one roll, she accomplished something I had never seen before (except on an episode of The Flintstones). Somehow she managed to put a backwards spin on her ball. It rolled about ten feet down the alley and then reversed itself and rolled all the way back to her! It was quite comical. The girls and I got a real laugh out of it.

I am not sure if Solomon had bowling in mind when he penned the words of Proverbs 26:27, “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him.” However, our bowling experience provides a perfect illustration of the principle in this verse. When you spend your time rolling stones, you better watch out; one of them is liable to come rolling right back at you. The application of this principle is seen in several areas of life.

For example, never say “never.” How many times have you caught yourself criticizing the actions of others by exclaiming, “I would never do that!” Or, “That would never happen to me!” Then, a short time later, you find yourself eating crow. Or perhaps you are one of those rubberneckers who gazes a bit too long at someone involved in a traffic accident as you pass by thinking to yourself, “They should have been paying more attention.” About that time, you rear-end the car in front of you.

We all roll stones, don’t we? To roll stones is to act or speak impetuously without pausing to consider the big picture. Mark it down, what we say and do has an effect on what we experience in the future. Digging pits may seem like an easy way out of a situation. Throwing rocks may seem like a great way to defend yourself. Yet, later on, when your memories of the shovels and stones have faded, you may suddenly find yourself looking up from the bottom of the very hole you dug, dodging falling debris. what is the moral of the story? Before you roll a proverbial ball, make sure you know where it is going. And if you absolutely must throw a stone, make sure you throw it hard enough to get there!