It’s that time of year when we wear our or our children’s college swag. There’s a new swag in town—debate swag. In a New York Times article, “The Secrets of Debate Swag,” published the morning of the Republican presidential primary debates, Vanessa Friedman wrote: “There will be a viral moment or two; a riposte that becomes a meme. Campaign staff will be watching. And before you can say ‘in my prime’ or ‘too honest,’ it will end up on a T-shirt in a candidate’s store.”

Friedman pointed out that campaign managers will “jump on any one-liner that can easily translate into merch.”

Like campaign managers, we’re fond of our one-liners, too. A stroll through Hobby Lobby or a scroll through Etsy reveals all kinds of merch proclaiming, “Rejoice,” “Be still” or “Great is your faithfulness.” I am under no illusion that political one-liners ever began as profound truths, but these of a more spiritual nature do have origins in profound truths, like “great is your faithfulness” whose origins go back to Lamentations 3:22-23: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

But there’s more profound truth behind the profound truth of these two verses. It’s in Lamentations 3:1 where we meet the man who has seen great affliction, and we enter Jeremiah’s lament that God “has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.” (verses two-three)

Well, there goes the merch with that kind of attitude, Jeremiah.

As he continues with these painful words in verses seven and eight, “He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer,” I am strangely comforted. I’m not alone in wondering why my cries for help go unanswered while other people’s cries are heard and answered.

David Powlison in his book Good and Angry makes it a point to say that this lamenting is not a lack of faith. “Grown-up, yet childlike faith is bluntly realistic . . . Faith is unafraid to credit God with controlling both the delightful and bitter things that happen to us—and faith continues to seek the help of the One who alone can help us.” In this painful passage, Powlison says Jeremiah finds “profound comfort.”

And guess what verses Powlison cites? Yep, Lamentations 3:22, 23, along with verse 21: “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

In his deep profound pain, Jeremiah had a deeper profound hope because of an even deeper profound truth: God’s steadfast love and mercies. They don’t end when we sit in darkness or pain; they don’t end when the trial does; they don’t end when either delightful or bitter events come our way. They don’t end because our promise-keeping God is faithful.

On mornings when I pour coffee into my own merch mug, I now will look at its one-liner of truth--“Be still and Know”—a bit differently, and take heart, or better yet, take refuge in unceasing steadfast love and mercy.