We can try to fit God around ourselves, or we can live in a way that teaches us to fit ourselves around God.
For years people thought that the sun revolved around the earth, but actually the sun is the centre of our universe. The earth revolves around the sun, not the other way round.
What would our days look like if we structured them around God?
One of the things that has greatly helped many Christians over the centuries to revolve around God is fixed time prayer. Let's look at what fixed time prayer is...
Many Christians 'frame' their day with prayer: they pray in some way first thing, and before meals, and some time before bed.
One step deeper than that, many Christians have 'semi-fixed' times of prayer. As well as praying informally throughout the day, they might have a slightly more formal prayer time 'when they wake up' or 'after breakfast' or 'on their lunch break' or 'when they get home from work' or 'before bed'. Perhaps you recognise this from your own life?
Thousands of Christians use this form of spiritual discipline in their lives in the shape of praying the set words of 'Morning Prayer' or 'Evening Prayer' at roughly the same time each day. For someone driving home from work (for whom the time they get home is dependent on the traffic) they might resolve to pray Evening Prayer as soon as they get home. They can't pray at a specific time such as 5:45pm because they don't know what the traffic will be like and they have no control over that. This is a 'semi fixed' time of prayer.
Fixed time prayer is when you stop to pray at a specific time on the clock. The most obvious example of this is religious communities and cathedrals where Christians gather to pray at specific times of day. Another example is churches that ring the bell pattern of the Angelus at set times of day (6:00am, midday, and 6:00pm). Those who understand what the bell represents stand still wherever they are for a minute while the bell rings. There is a famous painting showing this. In the painting two people working in the fields hear the Angelus bell and they stop what they are doing to pray for a moment.
The Angelus by Jean Francois-Millet
The spirituality behind this is a very profound dropping of what you are doing, even if you're in the middle of something, to praise God and spend time in prayer. It's a bit like the first disciples dropping their nets as soon as Jesus called them. It's a way of revolving around God rather than fitting God around ourselves. It's a way of saying that the tasks I'm busy with or the conversation or cup of tea I'm in the middle of isn't as important as God. The tasks may well be for God and being done out of love, and God may well be in the conversation, but this kind of spiritual practice helps us to affirm that God and prayer and 'worship' over 'doing' take precedence over our lives.
When those in religious life hear the bell ring for the next service or see on the clock that it's ten minutes until the next service, they're expected to drop what they're doing and go straight to chapel. If they're in conversation with a guest and they know the next service is in a few minutes' time, they would explain to the guest that it's time for their fixed-prayer time and they would most likely invite the guest to join them in chapel for the prayers then offer to resume the conversation afterwards. The one exception to this, like in Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan, is if you're caught up in a situation that would be absolutely detrimental to the health of another person if you were to leave them to go to your fixed-prayer time.
Aside from extreme circumstances, to stop what you're doing and draw conversations to a close ready for fixed time prayer says something very powerful about God's importance to anyone you are with. Muslims are often better than Christians at this kind of discipline and witness. Many of my friends have said how powerful me keeping to fixed time prayer was to them and most of them either joined me for my prayers or had a few moments quiet time to themselves which they really appreciated.
When it comes to, say, praying in the evening, I could decide that I'm going to pray when there's a convenient gap (when I've come to the end of my tasks or finished my conversations or when the video I'm watching finishes). This is good because at least I'm still praying in the evening but there is a sense in it of fitting God around myself and saying that my tasks or hobbies take precedence over God. If I decide beforehand on a set time that I'm going to stop whatever I'm doing for evening prayer time, this takes me deeper into a practice of revolving myself around God, not the other way round.
Fixed time prayer is a way of saying that God takes precedence over 'me', that worship takes precedence over my business or whatever I feel like doing at the time, that praise and prayer are ultimately more important than having an extended lie-in, or getting through my to-do list, or making God wait until I've finished what I'm doing. It's a very beautiful way of glorifying God and learning to live lives that revolve around God.
Is there a way that you could try out fixed time prayer for yourself?
You might decide that you are going to have a prayer time at a specific time each day.
You might join others for fixed-time prayer at a church or cathedral or religious community or monastic livestream.
You might like to experiment with setting an alarm on your phone for a specific time each day, such as midday or 3:00pm. When the alarm goes off you might stop everything you're doing and pause in prayer for a moment like the people in the painting above.