As a graduate student, I began trying to mesh my studies in business with my return to the church after a lengthy absence. In my religious life, I was struck by the simplicity and breadth of Jesus' call to a life of faith. Love God with your whole being. Extend self-love to everyone. By contrast, the economists whose work I was studying presented a view based on scarcity, competition, and needs that cannot be satisfied.
Available goods are always insufficient for needs.
Therefore, anyone who desires a larger share of those goods must compete with others. If I get more, someone must make do with less. As coherent as each set of ideas was alone, they were, and remain, difficult to reconcile. During my teaching career, this desire developed into an increased focus on service in the learning experience and as an important element of my professional life. This translated well into my time with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea, where the educational needs of church finance equaled or exceeded the need for financial expertise.