Confession: I can’t stop watching programmes about houses. I used to just “watch one if it’s on” but now I intentionally clear time to watch them. Whether it’s house hunting, house renovation, documentaries about the super rich and their super homes or hipsters living in unique and tiny abodes, I’m glued to the screen from start to finish.

It’s an inherited addiction – my mum gave me my first “hit”. As I moved out and started to make my own home, I began watching, just occasionally. It’s spiraled out of control. I even make my wife watch them.

There’s a lot to enjoy about house programmes: the bright eyed optimism as people think they can build a home worth £350,000 for £20,000. The inevitable drama caused by the British weather, adding 6 months to a project at any given time. The endless creativity of the human spirit as it seeks to create a home. The glorious reveal of the finished homes and the happily weary smiles of their owners.

I think what’s so captivating about them (to me at least) is the power of vision. Often people start with an plot of land covered by wildness, Nature wrapping her jealous arms around it. Before they can even think about building something, they have to tame the land, wrestle it into something mouldable.

It costs considerable time, significant money, tremendous energy, and yet again and again people see what could be. They see their children playing in front of the fireplace. They see the dream kitchen, filled with laughter and friendship. They see the sunrise from their bedroom. And so they go for it.

Vision should fill our lives: vision for our own lives, vision for our marriages, vision for our children, vision for our career and calling, vision for our relationships. The idea that something is “not yet but it could be” is one of the most powerful forces in the world. Just like those home builders, we should examine the wild plot before us and, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, dive in, tools in hand, to see what God wants to create in our lives.