Good Grief

We all remember good ol' Charlie Brown and him saying "good grief".  Paul refers to two types of grief which he calls godly grief and worldly grief.  You may say that godly grief is good grief.  So what is the difference between worldly grief and godly grief?  Paul says that godly grief leads to repentance while worldly grief only leads to shame.  The difference is the centre.  Worldly grief has self at the centre while godly grief has God at the centre.
Godly grief leads to repentance, true repentance.  Repentance is more than saying you are sorry or being sorry for your sin.  Repentance is a radical new way of thinking.  It has moved self from the centre and put God in His rightful place.  Repentance is not being sorry for our sins or saying that we won't do it anymore.  It is not cleaning up our act for Jesus but rather it is allowing God to do that for us.
A friend one time told me that the reason he was not a Christian "yet" was that he struggled with repentance.  He said that he thought Christians made repentance too easy.  Repentance he understood would cost him a great deal.  He eventually changed his way of thinking and today he is a true disciple of Jesus Christ.