Do not fear change or loss in such things as these, which are insecure, short-lived, earthly, and vanishing before they appear. What are these good things of employment and pleasant managers, acquired with many toils, compared to those that are immovable, that grow not old, and that even at the time of conflict bring you crowns? You stand now anxious, dreading who may be appointed over you, but such anxiety is a worldly care that you are called to cast off. When God provides, we must not take thought for the morrow, but rather free ourselves from all such distraction, for who feeds us from our youth up but He?
This very loss can become your gain, and you will not be injured, but even benefited, if you receive it with thanksgiving. It is in your power to receive as great a reward as if you had cast away the thing willingly. The one who thankfully suffers wrongs and forcible deprivations is sometimes more admirable than the one who gives spontaneously. For you who, while yet bound to that good manager and longing for such leadership, are now forcibly deprived, if you bear it without murmuring, without blasphemy, without turning to fortune-tellers or bitter speech, but instead give thanks to God, you show that you have first despised the comfort in your heart. Thus you become like one who despises worldly ease, and your soul is trained in self-command.
Even the one who comes next, even if they prove to be a poor manager, is not outside God’s ordering. The authority bears the sword not in vain, being the minister of God to execute wrath on evil and to honor good, even if the person himself does not know it. God has so shaped things. If the new manager proves difficult, and you endure with the patience that servants so often show their earthly masters, bearing insults, not resisting, content with hardship through fear of displeasing the Master, how much more should we do this from the fear of God? Such endurance paves the way for your own virtue. Many first learned godliness through the fear of present hardships. Let the uncertainty quicken you to discern good and evil, not as a babe who puts everything into its mouth, but as one of full age who by reason of use has senses exercised to test the spirits, to cling to what is edifying and reject what is corrupt.
Behold not your toils or your lost ease, but the goodness of God toward you. That goodness should make you tremble into faithful perseverance, knowing that His blessings do not abide with you unmovable if you turn listless. Continue in this faith, giving thanks in all things, and you will find that the Lord who trains you casts out first all care for your daily bread, then all fear of perils, and now even the fear of calumny and disappointing authority. The sting is removed when you trust Him. The disobedient live in perpetual fear, pale and trembling even in what they possess, but the one conscious of no evil, fruitful in thanksgiving, rejoices even here. Walk in that self-command, and let no anxious thought about your next manager master you.