שׁוּב: Repentance Isn't a Feeling

shub (shoob): Return, turn back, restore, repent

This week's Hebrew word is shoob — and it might just change the way you think about repentance.

We tend to think of repentance as an emotional experience. You feel bad, you cry, you tell God you're sorry. While emotion can absolutely be part of it, shoob doesn't care about your feelings. It's a word of direction. You were going one way. Now you're not- you've turned the other way. That's it. That's repentance.

Shoob shows up constantly throughout the Psalms and the prophets and every time, it's a call to physically reorient. In Ruth it is repeated a ton in chapter one for Naomi and Ruth turning back to Bethlehem. Stop walking away from God and start walking toward Him, like Naomi. It's not complicated but it is costly. Turning around means admitting you were headed the wrong way in the first place.

This is actually really good news. It means repentance isn't about working up the right amount of guilt or getting your emotions in order. It just means turning. And Yahweh is always, always waiting for you to do exactly that.

Is there an area of your life where God is inviting you to shoob — not to feel differently, but to actually turn?

Scriptures where we find "shub":

Ruth 1:6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 21, 22, 2:6, 4:3, 4:15

Lamentations 3:40 — "Let us examine and probe our ways, and let us return to the LORD."

Joel 2:13 — "Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and compassionate..."