We tend to consider sacrifice in terms of gains and losses. Another way to think of sacrifice is repurposing. When Jesus and his disciples drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately on entering it, you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone should say to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ reply, ‘The Master has need of it and will send it back here at once'” (Mark 11:1-3).
The owner of the colt lost the use of his own colt for a period of time. That was a loss, and that loss was fit material for a sacrifice of some kind. If sacrifice is seen in terms of gains and losses, then the loss of the colt could be offered in order to gain the divine favor. In terms of repurposing, it could be intuited that the divine will had a higher and nobler purpose for the colt: in this case, to convey the King of Kings into the city of Jerusalem amidst palms and acclamation, in fulfillment of scripture.
If you lose something that is dear to you, you might offer up that loss as a sacrifice to God in order to gain the divine favor. You might also open your mind to the possibility that God has some higher purpose hidden in the inscrutable depths of his providence. You had hoped to control that thing that was dear to you, but now you may choose to cede control of it entirely to someone better than you and more powerful than you, that is, to God, the divine master. There is your sacrifice. “The Master has need of it” (Mark 11:3).